Cady With a Chance
by BeccaBreaksThings
Summary: Transferred to Hogwarts in her sixth year, Cady Hayes sets out with one thing in mind: friendship. Everything seems to be acting against her - tragedy in her home life, rotten luck with the Slytherin bullies - that is, everything except a grey-eyed fiend. Sirius Black proves far more than anyone ever thought in this tale of love, loss, and triumph over personal demons. SB/OC LE/JP
1. With a Chance of Meeting

Cady Hayes made her way through the crowded station, blue eyes narrowed to feline slits as she focused all her attention on the wall separating platforms 9 and 10. The letter had been very specific as to how she was supposed to reach the Hogwarts express – luckily she knew how to read a map. She kept a tight grip on the trunk she lugged behind her, and an even tighter one on the cat-carrier at her side. Roman, her cat, was sleeping soundly as always inside.

Once through the wall, it was all she took to stop herself from gasping. Sure, it wasn't her first year of magical education – she had been in America for the last five years with her mother after the woman had finally gathered the courage to leave her father. Only weeks earlier the woman fell in love with a new man and neither Cady nor her mother wanted to ruin the chance of a healthy relationship by dropping the magic bomb. Cady was a muggle-born and well accustomed to changing to accommodate the muggle world, so she had bid her mother goodbye and reluctantly moved back to Ireland to stay with her father. That was when her Hogwarts letter arrived – though gods only knew how the school had anticipated her move.

Either way, Cady endeavoured not to look every bit the enchanted first year for fear of embarrassing herself on her very first day. Head down, guard up, she made her way onto the great train just quickly enough to avoid being trampled on by boisterous boys in yellowish ties. _Hufflepuff, _she remembered. They'd told her about the houses already, had her visited by an odd witch who 'sorted' her into Gryffindor house and had given her the red-and-gold tie she had stowed in her trunk.

Being so early, Cady found it easy to reach an empty compartment on the train in which she stowed both her trunk and the cat carrier so she could release Roman into the relative wild. Unadventurous as the cat was, he coiled up in a warm ball of ginger fluff in her lap almost as soon as she had taken a seat by the window. Watching the students outside bid goodbye to adoring parents entertained her for a while, but soon Cady found herself humming and tapping her fingers against her leg to the dreamy rhythm she had in mind. Soon enough she began to fantasize about Hogwarts, about hopefully making herself some friends in this new place who _wouldn't _ridicule her about the things she had no control over. Those Negative Nellies didn't deserve her time, anyway.

Cady heard a rush of footsteps and loud, domineering voices outside her compartment door and prayed to any and every god that they wouldn't be joining her. They sounded like rowdy boys and she knew that if they found a compartment with only one person inside, they'd have no trouble taking it over. She sighed and forced herself to act ignorant, turning her attention to the cat in her lap as a kind of distraction.

Three knocks on the compartment door, then it slid open and a girl's voice called, "Hello?"

Cady snapped her head up and peered out from under her dark fringe to examine the source. It was a pretty girl who looked about her age, with a sheet of silky red hair and inquisitive green eyes Cady herself would have killed for. The best thing about the stranger was the tie around her neck – red and gold, a house mate!

The girl cleared her throat and spoke when Cady said nothing. "Do you mind if I sit with you?" she asked. "Only if I don't find somewhere soon I might see Potter _again, _and I really don't fancy that right now. He's insufferable."

That brought a smile to Cady's lips and the girl nodded her head towards the empty seat opposite. "Be my guest," she said, the ghost of an Irish accent clinging to her lilting voice. "The more the merrier."

The girl plopped down unceremoniously opposite Cady and offered out a slim hand to shake, which was accepted with both politeness and amusement. "I'm Lily. Lily Evans."

"Cadence... Uh, Cady Hayes." Cady cringed at her own awkward introduction, though Lily seemed oblivious to the slip, instead regarding her in the curious way a patron might one of the more exotic animals at the zoo.

"I haven't seen you around before," Lily remarked, arching a coppery brow. "Are you new? You look a little old to be a first year."

Cady shrugged, then nodded. "I'm in my sixth year," she said. "I transferred officially just a couple weeks ago."

"Oh. Does that mean you'll be sorted with the first years, then?"

"Thankfully not." Cady laughed, the sound short and relieved. Shifting Roman to allow herself to get into a more comfortable position, she added, "They took pity on me and figured all that out a little while ago. I'm the same as you, uh... Gryffindor?"

Lily laughed with her and reached across to fuss Roman behind his ears, earning a purr of delight. "Gryffindor – sadly that means you'll be with Potter, Black, and the rest of them, but you'll learn to avoid them soon enough. Cute cat, what's his name?"

"It's-"

Before she could finish that thought, the compartment door was pushed open once again and in trudged two tall, dark haired boys. One had mischievous hazel eyes with round, wire-rimmed glasses perched on the edge of his nose, while the other was grey-eyed and scruffy – both were handsome in their own unique ways.

"Nice summer, Evans?" the boy with glasses asked, neglecting to say a word of greeting to Cady before he dropped himself onto the seat beside Lily.

Lily's mouth pursed into a taut line and she glared at him. "Fine, Potter, all the better for lack of an arrogant little toerag like you."

Almost entirely without her permission, Cady found herself starting to giggle in response to the wholly serious look on Lily's face. She almost thought the glasses boy was going to get hexed, or maybe a swift punch to the nose.

The grey-eyed boy wheeled to face her, flashing a flirtatious smile so practised and insincere it might as well have been carved of stone. "Is your hair _pink_?" he asked through snickers.

Cady shrugged and wrapped one of the few pink streaks mingled with her otherwise dark curls around her finger. It had been a spur of the moment decision when she'd been shopping for her books at Diagon Alley not long ago, one she was proud of herself for going through with. Anything to break the perfect mould she'd tried to adhere to for her mother's sake. She grinned at the laughing boy and said, "No shit, Sherlock."

The two boys didn't catch her reference, though Lily's eyes brightened in recognition. "They won't understand you," she said. "Muggle-born?"

Pumping her fist in the air in a victorious gesture – it was a thrill to have someone who seemed likely to understand her sense of humour around so soon – Cady replied, "And proud. You, too?"

While Lily nodded, the boy with glasses turned his attention away from her for a fraction of a second to regard Cady. "Who's your friend, Evans?" he asked. "Haven't seen her around."

"I'd like to see more of her," Grey-Eyes added with a wink.

Cady's reply was more instinct than anything she, herself, really wanted to say. Much as she didn't like to have to be aggressive, something about the flirtatious stranger screamed 'I'm bad news and I know it.' "I'm not interested," she snapped, "and I never will be."

He simply grinned and shrugged, holding out a hand for her to shake. "Sirius Black."

"James Potter," the boy with glasses said, waving in two boys who lingered in the open doorway. One was small, plump, and watery eyed while the other had sandy hair and robes that looked second-hand at best. "That's Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin," he added, gesturing to the boys in turn.

Remus, the shaggy boy, offered Cady a polite smile and took up the space immediately to her left, while Peter and Sirius filled the spaces beside Remus and James respectively. "You don't mind, do you?"

"It's fine," she said, "and for those of you who weren't present – I'm Cady, and yes, I'm new. Transferred over from America."

"You don't _sound _American," Sirius said with a snort.

Cady clapped thrice slowly. "You're on a roll today," she said, cracking an amused smile. "I'm from Ireland originally, if you're really so interested. Anything else you'd like to know? Shoe size? Mother's maiden name?"

"All of the above," said James before shifting slightly to launch into conversation with Sirius.

While she tried her best not to eavesdrop, the second she heard the mention of quidditch, Cady was hooked. She noted a shiny badge displayed proudly on James' jumper that named him captain of his house team and took it upon herself to ask, "Are there any positions going on the team this year?"

James observed her sceptically, then nodded. "One of our beaters and two chasers just left last year. Why, you interested?"

"Mmhmm." Cady nodded and yawned into the back of her hand. "I was a beater with the other school, as it happens." With a grin, she added, "I can try out, right?"

Sirius snorted and eyed the girl like she was insane. "Beater?" he repeated. "You sure? No offence – or take some if you want – but I need my partner big and strong, not weak and girly."

"Hey!" Lily jumped in before Cady had the chance to even process the insult. She leaned across James, who looked nothing less than pleased with the arrangement, to yell at Sirius. "Don't judge a book by its cover, Black."

"I'll try not to, Evans," Sirius retorted. His use of Lily's last name wasn't nearly as endearing as James', and he seemed to realise that seconds after he spoke, falling brooding and silent. Cady jumped in before any further argument could start.

"Just let me know when try-outs come around, okay?" she said, nudging James' leg with the toe of her boot to draw his attention away from Lily.

Remus beside her chuckled and said, "I'll tell you."

Cady smiled in thanks, turning to look at the boy. Compared to the striking personalities of James and Sirius, she could see how Remus might be easily overlooked – however, on closer inspection, he was almost cute. Definitely a nicer guy, at least, and Cady could see him as exactly her brand of friend. "You're on the team?"

"Nothing like that." He shook his head. "It's just hard to hang around those two and _not _hear about it. Especially James, he's fond of showing off about it more than he'd care to admit." In a mock-whisper, Remus added, "Even more when Lily's around."

Cady snort-laughed, pressing her hand to her nose to try to prevent the embarrassing sound. "I can see that," she said. "Somehow I don't think she minds too much."

"That's debatable."

"I'm sure they'll figure it out." Cady shrugged and bit her lip to keep from saying any more lest she come off as over-assuming or rude. After all, she had barely known them for a half hour. Settling back into her seat and dancing her fingers over Roman's soft fur, she contended herself with listening to the others' conversation and only giving her input when it was asked for. All the while, she tried not to grin.

It was going to be a good year.


	2. With a Chance of Friendship

The remainder of the train journey passed in a wave of amicable chatter and nervous butterflies in Cady's stomach. They only worsened once she'd donned her odd Hogwarts robes and began a little magic talk with Lily. The two of them had a few elective subjects in common, though Cady was dismayed to hear she was so far alone for Divination, and had the 'Marauders' – as the boys dubbed themselves – for company in Care of Magical Creatures.

"You'll be fine," Lily assured as the two of them waited for the flow of students departing the train to calm down a little. The boys had already run off, eager to get to the hall as they each had declared themselves 'starving.'

Cady, for lack of both cat and trunk, felt oddly naked as the two of them made their way off the train before it could ride off back to London. Lily had assured her that all her belongings, pet included, would be in her dorm by the time they got back there later in the evening – it was a worrying thought, but Cady did her best to ignore it and focus on the present. They were hustled out of the way so that the first years could be guided to the boats – Cady was glad to hear she wouldn't have to board one, vast expanses of water being one of her inexplicable fears – and Lily took them both towards the carriages.

Mystified by the large, skeletal horses attached to each of the carriages, Cady stopped dead in her tracks. Her mouth hung open and her blue eyes widened in wonder – she'd never seen one of those before, but, when she asked her guide about them, Lily seemed to have no idea what she was talking about.

"But they're right there," Cady muttered, frowning. "Hard to miss."

Lily simply shook her head, groaning when the only two carriages remaining were occupied; one by three scowling girls in matching green ties; the other filled to the brim by Marauders and their egos. In the end they opted for the latter, with Lily making sure to position herself between Cady and the very edge so as not to leave any room for James.

Thankfully, the boys were still caught up in conversation enough that, for the most part, they ignored the girls and kept to themselves. Cady was grateful. She took the time to calm her nerves by counting back from 100, and by the time she'd reached 34, she was seated at one long table accentuated by red and gold, surrounded by chattering students. Her eyes drifted up to the ceiling, a perfect reflection of the grim sky outside, and she smiled. Little touches like that were what made magic wonderful.

A few whispers reached her ears – the kind she knew were aimed at her. Mostly they wondered who she was, and there were most definitely a few from girls questioning why she was hanging around with the Marauders. It was exactly that kind of talk that prompted her to zone out entirely.

Cady didn't hear a word of the sorting, or anything after right up until Lily gave in and pinched her arm to grab her attention. "Cady?" Lily's brows were pinched in concern. "You okay there?"

"Oh! Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she assured. Cady took a breath and began piling some of the steaming food on her plate – it all looked so good, she was forced to take far more than she thought herself capable of eating. "Sorry if I startled you. I was just thinking is all."

"Thinking about what?" James asked around a mouthful of potato.

"Meaning of life, evolution of mankind..." Cady trailed off with a shrug, brushing her hair back over her ears to prevent it from getting in the way of her food. "Just the usual."

James snorted and messed his hair with a hand, the gesture having been repeated many a time in the short while Cady had known him. "Had any epiphanies?"

Cady double-blinked in surprise – she may not have admitted it aloud, but she hadn't pegged James as the intelligent type thus far. Her moment of pause was just enough for a pug-nosed girl to swoop in and steal her hopes of conversation. Lily rolled her eyes and muttered something about 'morons' into her peas, which made Cady smile.

Some time later, when they all were finished eating and beginning to depart the Great Hall, Cady managed to separate herself from Lily and the boys when she'd had to stop to retie her shoe. She muttered to herself all the while, promising to follow one of the strangers from the Gryffindor table so she didn't end up going the wrong way and making a fool of herself.

"Look," a snide voice from behind sneered just as Cady pushed to standing. Years of being picked on in playgrounds all over told her not to acknowledge them, especially not while she was alone. But, _oh, _she wanted to. The last thing she needed was to be seen as some easy target – that would only end in her being pursued relentlessly for the next two years of her life.

"Look at her," it repeated. "More fresh meat."

Another one – a boy – laughed and added, "Must be some special kind of stupid to only be joining now. Maybe a squib they took pity on?"

"That old fool Dumbledore is far too lax for his own good," said the first. "He'll let anything with a pulse attend these days, I heard."

Just then, a hand grabbed at Cady's wrist and tugged her forward, away from the voices. "Just ignore them," he, Sirius Black, said. "They're all gits anyway. Not worth your time."

"I was," Cady assured curtly. "It's only a matter of worming my way onto the quidditch team to reap some sweet, sweet revenge."

"How do you know they're even on the team?" Sirius snorted and shook his head, dropping Cady's wrist back to her side as though it was on fire.

Cady thought about that for a second or two before she said, "I'm guessing. The bonehead jock type, right?"

"Jock?"

"Never mind." Cady sighed. "Think you can show me where I'm supposed to be going? I lost Lily."

Sirius snickered and nodded, parting a group of first years like they were his Red Sea. "I know, Evans sent us back to find you. Thought you might've wandered off into the Forbidden Forest or something."

"I could probably figure out that if it's big, dark, and there're trees, I've taken a wrong turning," Cady pointed out as they ascended the stairs. She was thrilled to watch a staircase above them shift from one platform to another with ease. "This place is so cool."

Feigning nonchalance as he passed a girl who flushed and winked at him, Sirius said, "It's all right. Nothing special."

"Understatement of the century," Cady noted, taking in all the moving portraits lining the walls. Being in Hogwarts for the first time made her feel new to the concept of magic – it was such an exquisite display of all the things the real world wanted and would never see, a real work of art. "I think I'd like to live here." In the periphery of her vision, Cady didn't miss Sirius' thoughtful look, nor the nod which he soon covered up with a yawn and a shrug.

"We're right up top," he said, pointing to a portrait of a portly woman closing behind the last student in a long line to get in. "Just through there. All you need to do is say the password."

"And what is the password?" Cady asked, looking at him expectantly as they reached the top of the staircase. She fiddled with a lock of hair, twisting it around her finger to give her something more to do than gape in wonder at the mysticism all around her.

"Guess."

Cady frowned. "But it could be anything, couldn't it?"

The woman in the portrait watched them with a bored, annoyed expression, but Sirius seemed oblivious – he had a new toy to play with. "Guess," he repeated. "Three tries or you have to go sleep in the library."

"I think I'm being bullied," Cady said, and scowled at him."And by a stranger no less."

"Stranger?" Sirius huffed and folded his arms. "I'm much more than that."

"Fine. An insolent stranger," Cady amended. "Who wont tell me the password."

"That's because-"

"Cady!"

The portrait swung open and out hopped Lily, her expression caught between concern and exasperation. "What took you so long?" Shooting a glare at Sirius, she asked, "What did you do, Black?"

Sirius held his hands up in surrender, whistling away any insinuation that he might be the guilty party. "I helped," he said, "just like you asked."

Cady thought about ratting him out, but instead shrugged and said, "I was asking about the portraits, that's all. He was just explaining some of the history."

"What history?" Lily narrowed her eyes in scrutinizing disbelief.

"I've forgotten already." Cady smiled, and rolled her shoulders back in a hapless what-can-you-do gesture. "Doesn't matter – can we go inside? After all that eating, I'm starting to feel sleepy. It's been a big day."

Lily took her arm and guided them both through the portrait hole. "All the sixth year girls share a dorm," she explained, leaving Cady little time to take in the red-and-gold Common Room brimming with strangers. Instead she lead them straight towards a set of steep stairs just through a stone arch. "Aside from the two of us, there's only Annabel, and she's lovely. I think you'll like her a lot."

Suppressing a yawn with a hearty gulp, Cady nodded her appreciation. She was glad of Lily being so talkative, and more so the way she seemed to sense when the other girl needed reassuring. Definitely she had made at least one friend on her very first day.

Cady was proud of herself.


	3. With a Chance of Learning

"This isn't so bad," Cady said, glancing down at her schedule where classes were listed in a neat, cursive script. The only thing she would have changed if she could was the double Potions following a stack of Care of Magical Creatures – all in all, it could have been a lot worse.

"Let's see." Lily took the parchment from her and set it beside her own for reference. "Looks like we've got Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions and Transfiguration together. You picked strangely."

Cady shrugged her shoulders. "I didn't have a plan," she explained. "Just flicked ink at a list and went with whatever it landed on. It's a good system if you're ever in need of a quick decision – just mind not to do it in front of a white wall."

"Don't do what in front of a white wall?" James slid onto the bench next to two tiny first years and was quick to shove a slice of toast into his mouth. "Should I be worried?"

"It's not what you were thinking, Potter," Lily replied with a dismissive flick of her hand. The corner of her mouth twitched up in a half-smile as she handed Cady's schedule back to her. "You want me to show you the way to your first class? If we leave now we should have time."

"I'll be okay," Cady said, "if all else fails I could just follow the yellow brick road. Another efficient alternative to too much thinking."

"Hogwarts doesn't have a yellow brick road," said a willow-thin blonde from Lily's other side. Annabel was her name, if Cady's memory served her correctly – she hoped so, since they were obliged to share a dorm. They hadn't spoken much yet though Lily's guess that Cady would like the girl so far proved true.

Lily laughed and shook her head. "It does have a lot of wizards, though."

"Ah." Cady clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth twice in quick succession. "But does it have _the _wizard?"

"We'd need the Wicked Witch of the West, too," Annabel added. "Not to mention Glinda the Good Witch. We all know who'd get that role, right, Lil?"

Cady grinned and nodded her agreement. "She does look like she'd be good for Munchkin Land. It's something in the eyes, don't you think?"

"What about Evans' eyes?" James cut in, their topic of conversation having eluded him up to then. He had been joined by a tired looking Remus and the plump boy whose name evaded Cady.

"They're witchy," Cady explained as she rose from the bench and stepped out of the way of a hungry student eager to take her place. Stretching her arms above her head in a feline gesture, she yawned and said, "Well, if I'm off exploring I'd best be going now."

Annabel finger-combed her hair and glanced over at Cady. "Not going to wait for me? I was eavesdropping, sorry."

"You take Divination?" Cady grinned and breathed a private sigh of relief. "Good to know – I didn't fancy my chances in this place."

"You'll get used to it." Annabel abandoned the apple she had been gnawing at, clapped Lily on the shoulder and joined Cady in the aisle between tables. "C'mon, the earlier we get there, the better chances we have of the good chairs."

"Good chairs?"

"Professor Brown has three of these weird plush armchairs kept towards the back of the room – they're enchanted to mould to your body. It's pretty cool." Annabel chuckled and set about showing Cady the way to the Divination classroom, providing a running commentary of almost every other place they passed just to be helpful.

* * *

Some hours later and it was time for Cady's last class of the day – the double Potions supreme with one Horace Slughorn. Lily had insisted that he was a good man, and a fantastic teacher, but upon entering the classroom Cady wasn't so sure. She had the feeling the year would be disastrous for her right from the off – her questionable talent in the subject didn't help, either.

Students filed in and took their seats one by one, with three quarters of the class being made up by the Slytherin and Gryffindor houses. James and Sirius went together near the back of the class – quite predictably so – and Lily took up a space next to Remus, so Cady was left to claim what was left. It was either a choice between a hook-nosed Slytherin boy or a Ravenclaw she recognised as Richard Ferris from her Divination class. She chose the latter in a hurry, smiling politely at the boy with green eyes and a shock of honey-blonde hair.

"Hi." Cady held out a hand in greeting as the portly professor engaged in conversation with Lily while the others settled themselves down. "Richard, right?"

He nodded, shaking her hand once firmly. "And you're Cady, if memory serves correctly."

Cady couldn't help but notice he had one of those clipped English accents that didn't make sense anywhere other than a stately home in the country. She almost wanted to ask if his family owned their own castle somewhere; maybe a few horses and a servant or ten, too. Politeness had her hold her tongue and nod in response to Richard's question. "Cady is me and I am she. Hope you don't mind me sitting here – it looked like the lesser of two evils."

"You think I'm evil?" Richard laughed and shook his head, dimples clear as day in his gold-tanned cheeks. "Don't worry about it, you can sit with me if you want. It's cool to have the company."

"Whew." Cady breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Oh, thank Merlin. I don't suppose you're any good at this, are you? I suck."

Richard quirked a blonde brow. "You can't be that bad."

Gravely, Cady replied, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

"I'll take my chances."

"You're brave."

He leaned over and tugged lightly on Cady's Gryffindor tie, smiling. "I think that's supposed to be you, right?"

"Then let's hope your Ravenclaw intelligence can save my Potions integrity," she replied, proud of herself for keeping up the light flirtation. Cady didn't have an excellent track record when it came to boys – she'd only had one relationship which had lasted over a week – but that didn't mean she wasn't going to indulge in the opportunity when it arrived. Flirting was harmless as long as she knew it wasn't going anywhere.

* * *

Ten minutes later and they had been given their instructions for the class – to prepare a peace draught. Cady's nose wrinkled at the thought of the difficult potion, though Richard remained optimistic by her side.

"We'll figure it out," he promised. "Can't be that hard with two brains working on it."

"When one of those brains is mine, maybe it can be," Cady replied. She shrugged and added, "The only reason I think I passed my exams for this stuff was dumb luck, and how likely is that to happen again?"

"Statistically, I wouldn't know. You look like one lucky bug, though." Richard smiled at her again, flipping open his Potions book to the right page, and in turn doing the same for Cady. "See? I'm helping already."

Cady heard boyish snickering from behind, though she tried not to react to it. She quickly dismissed it as someone messing around and turned her attention back to Richard. "So," she said, "what's the best way to start?"

"First we go with the moonstone," Richard said, highlighting the instruction with a brush of his finger. "Like the book says – if we follow the instructions, we can't go wrong."

* * *

"I spoke too soon." Richard grimaced into the thick pinkish goo filling Cady's cauldron, then back to his own well-brewed potion. "How did you get from this to that? We were on the same page minutes ago, all you had to do was stir it."

Cady sighed and slumped her shoulders. "I _told _you I was useless. There's your proof."

Richard shook his head. "Not useless, just..."

"It's okay to admit the obvious," Cady grumbled, watching as Professor Slughorn showered praise over Lily and her perfect peace draught. Soon enough his attitude would change, she decided, especially when he saw the mess she had made of it – though by a quick scan of the room, she hadn't been the only one to have problems.

"Well, it kinda matches your hair," Richard said, in hopes that it might appease the situation a little "That's something."

"That's problematic," Cady countered. A loud bang from across the room stole her attention just long enough that Richard had carefully swapped their cauldrons so that she stood before the successful potions. The bang – from a Hufflepuff student covered in goo – proved foreboding as seconds later the same happened with Cady's mess, showering both Richard and herself.

He offered her a what-can-you-do kind of smile and shrugged his shoulders. "I've been here longer," Richard said as he wiped pink out from under his eyes. "You need to make a good first impression; have mine."

Slughorn looked over from where he was attending to the sticky Hufflepuff, dismay crossing his rounded face.

"See?" Richard laughed. "Now it looks like I just had a bad day."

"But you didn't," Cady pointed out, brushing off the shoulder of her now dirtied robes. "I did, and I should own up to my mistakes."

Richard shook his head. "Nah, I always wanted to see what it was like to be on the wrong side of the cauldron, anyway."

"There's a right side?" Cady smiled her appreciation as the professor made his reluctant way over and whispered an almost inaudible, "Thanks. I owe you one."

* * *

When the lesson had ended and she and Richard parted ways, Cady found herself soon squished into a Marauder sandwich. Sirius had taken up her left side and James the right, both wearing identically stupid grins.

"Oh Cady," Sirius cooed, draping his arm across her shoulders. His tone was nothing less than mocking as he teased, "You look like one lucky bug."

"Here," James added, "take my potion, princess, I'll dive under the goo for you. Wouldn't want to mess a hair on that pretty little head of yours."

Cady felt she had two choices just then – get mad, or get laughing. As she considered herself a reasonable kind of person, she chose the latter and erupted into silly snickers. "Kind of you to offer, boys, but I think I have a knight in shining armour already." In the split second it took her to say it, Cady realised how stupid that sounded and stuck her tongue out in distaste. "He's too nice for his own good, I think. It's weird."

"There's nothing weird about a little chivalry," said Lily from behind them. "Only you really should be doing your own work next time, Cady."

"I did," Cady argued. "He just switched when I wasn't looking. There was nothing I could do about it."

"Switch back?" Sirius suggested, dropping his arm to his side as James slowed to walk beside Lily.

Cady huffed and rolled her eyes. "I didn't think of that."

"Sure you didn't."


	4. With a Chance of Bonding

Midway through November of what was proving an incredibly busy year, Cady found herself in her very first detention. Luckily for her, she wouldn't be serving time alone. Perhaps _unluckily, _her companion for the evening was to be none other than Sirius Black. While the two of them were just about getting on – especially since Cady's successful try-out for the Gryffindor quidditch team – she found the prospect undeniably awkward. _Well, _she thought, _it's my fault for getting into that argument during DADA. _

Ten minutes until they were due to serve time, the two of them abandoned Lily, Annabel, and the rest of the Marauders so as not to be too late – and hopefully lessen the wrath of the ever-unhappy Professor Abeline Rogers. The woman already seemed to have a grudge against her Gryffindor students, there was no use giving her a real reason for it.

"So, Black," Cady said, turning to walk backwards so she could face the swaggering boy. "When is a door not a door?"

Sirius snorted and rolled his eyes. "I don't know, does it have anything to do with a jar? Or is this the one about the skeleton key?"

"Just because they've been said before, doesn't mean they're not any good now." Cady chortled and said, "You'll have to warn me if I'm going to walk into anybody, the Divination professor says there's a trip in my near future."

"And you believe all that rubbish?"

Cady shrugged and took small, measured steps. It wasn't that she distrusted Sirius Black, rather more that she'd fancy herself as a backup watcher. Turning the right way was just too simple. "I haven't figured that out yet. The whole seeing the future thing evades me, but I think there's something to the dream stuff."

"Oh?" Sirius lifted a dark brow in amusement, directing Cady around a corner with a flick of his wrist. "What are your dreams saying, princess? Please tell me it has something to do with your potions wonderboy. I bet he's got some weird secrets hidden up somewhere. Probably a cross dresser."

"Hey. Richard is _nice, _nothing more, nothing less. There's nothing wrong with that." Cady stuck her tongue out. "Just because he's not helping you out, no need to be jealous."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I don't need his help," he bragged. "I'm pretty good at potions. Better than you – I haven't burnt any eyebrows off so far."

"First off, that was an accident. And second, it's not like I asked for the help."

"Might as well have."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cady laughed and turned herself around when she nearly collided with a sour-faced Slytherin girl. She was quick to fall into step with Sirius, shoving her hands into the pockets of her robes.

Sirius smirked at her, then began fluffing at his hair and batting his eyelashes in an exaggerated imitation of femininity. Worse than that, even, was his attempt at mimicking Cady's voice. "I'm just so _bad _at this, if only there was someone here to _save _me. Maybe after we can run off into the sunset together with all our house-elves."

"That's insulting," Cady grumbled. "I don't sound like that."

"You should hear yourself," Sirius said, steering them down the corridor to Rogers' classroom. "Sometimes it's just too cute."

Cady stopped dead in her tracks, brows raised close to her hairline in both amusement and surprise. "Did you just say _cute_? Bless, poor Black, his own relationships just don't cut it so he has no choice but to spy on mine."

Just as Sirius was about to reply, a shrill bellow from inside had the two of them groan in unison. "You're late!"

"Here goes nothing," Cady muttered, following Sirius inside.

Waiting by a set of cages which had housed both doxies and – for a brief while – fire crabs over the course of the last month. Professor Rogers favoured bringing potentially dangerous creatures to exhibit for the class. She was a small woman, stout and eagle-eyed with a crop of reddish hair, though her presence far outweighed her stature.

Sirius said nothing, taking a position by the door and doing his best not to yawn. Cady, on the other hand, had the good graces to apologise. "Sorry, ma'am, must've taken us longer to walk down here than we thought."

"Then you leave earlier," Rogers snapped, unimpressed. She gestured to the empty cages. "First you'll be cleaning these – no magic, either."

"Just those four cages?" Cady shrugged – it seemed a reasonable punishment, and they could be done within an hour. "We can manage that."

"I wasn't finished. Don't interrupt." Rogers threw a glare their way before she gestured to a door leading through to a cupboard. "And once you've done those, there are more in there. While you're at it, you can give the room a once over and make sure it's _spotless. _I'll be checking."

Cady groaned, while Sirius flashed the professor a charming smile. "Will you be watching?" he asked in a flirtatious manner that made Cady want to ditch her lunch. "Just in case we have any questions."

Professor Rogers' eyes narrowed in warning. "I'll be in my office. Try anything and it'll be another evening, and another, and another. As many as I see fit." She paused to see if either of them had anything to say, and, when they didn't, she barked, "Get to it!"

"Yes, ma'am." Cady grimaced and turned on her heel to examine one of the cages, listening to Sirius' badly muffled snickers as the professor trotted through to her office. It was a while before either of them spoke – Cady had managed to scrape out the worst of the mess from her cage of choice and Sirius stayed back out of the way.

"Aren't you going to help?" she asked, shooting a glare over her shoulder. "Sirius Black, domestic goddess, is in high demand just now."

Sirius laughed and shook his head. "What's in it for me? No fun in cleaning."

"There's fun in _not _being kept back in detention," Cady replied curtly. "The quicker we get this done, the quicker we get to go to the common room and see James act a prat around Lily. You can't tell me that's not tempting."

"Mm." He stroked an invisible beard, pondering. "But that's an everyday occurrence – getting to watch you clean is much more fun."

"You mean you're too lazy to lift a finger to help me." Cady rolled her eyes and scrunched up her nose as she pulled a ball of something oddly green from the bottom of one of the bars. She was quick to discard it and brush off her hands on her old jeans. "Which isn't fair, since this isn't only my punishment."

Sirius shrugged. "I'm here all the time," he pointed out. "This is your first, right? So it's only fair I let you get the full experience. It'd be cruel to do anything else."

"Do not make me call her back in here," Cady warned, narrowing her eyes. "I'll do it."

"Will not."

"Will too."

After a muttered something from Sirius at her back, the cage to Cady's left was rendered clean as could be, prompting a bout of boyish laughter. "See?" he said. "Don't say I didn't help."

"We aren't supposed to use magic." Cady bit her lip to suppress a smile, trying and failing to mimic her mother's favourite stern expression. The end result was a kind of twisted craziness, wide-eyed and almost frightening. "You heard her as well as I did. In fact-" she turned to glance at Professor Rogers' office door "- she'll probably be in here soon with another week's work thanks to you."

"Relax." Sirius prodded her shoulder. "Like I said, I've been in here before. She doesn't check the method, just wants you to be cooped up and miserable for a few hours."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"She's a soul sucker," Sirius said and barked a laugh. "Long as she thinks she's taking away your fun, anything goes."

Cady shook her head. "I don't believe you. If 'anything goes', why not just sneak out?"

"What makes you think I haven't before?" With another flick of his wand, Sirius had cleared the second cage, the one Cady had tried to clean with muggle methods.

"The fact that you're still here now."

"I don't usually have company." He shrugged and perched on the edge of one of the tables, legs too long to manage a successful swing beneath him. That didn't stop Sirius trying, just gave him the appearance of an oversized toddler whose mother didn't have the heart to tell him he was getting too big for the baby swings. Cady snickered at the mental image, cupping her dusty hand over her mouth to quiet the sound.

Sirius arched a brow and asked, "What're you laughing at, princess?"

"First of all; still not a princess," Cady said, rolling her eyes. "Secondly, I wasn't laughing. Just coughing in my own special way."

"And here I thought I was just _hilarious. _Everyone else seems to think so."

"Pity laughs, kiddo." Cady leaned against the table opposite, thin arms folded across her chest. "Nobody wants to hurt your feelings."

"Bollocks." Sirius scoffed.

Cady smiled and was about to reply when a heavy thud from Roger's office broke the jovial atmosphere between the two. Cady hopped down and hurried to stand by her cage, reaching in as though there was still scouring to be done. "You'd better look busy," she grumbled. "Dust or something."

"Dust?" Sirius instead settled for mimicking Cady, waggling his brows for comic effect as the two listened to the approaching footsteps of their DADA professor. "Show time!"

* * *

"I hate you," Cady groaned, three and a half hours later when the two of them had been released. "You said she wouldn't care how we did it, long as we got it done."

"Usually, she doesn't," he argued. "Must be something about you that set her off."

"_I _didn't do anything! It was all you!" Cady sped up to try and avoid any further conversation, irritated beyond belief with the boy who had cost her the very first Hogsmeade trip and several evenings leading up to it.

"Yeah, right." Sirius matched her pace just long enough to childishly stick his tongue out at her. "It's your bloody fault, too."

With that, he broke into an effortless jog that had him turn a corner and leave Cady's line of sight in seconds. Once Sirius was out of the picture, she slowed herself down to the point she was barely moving at all. It had passed the time she was supposed to be back in Gryffindor tower, but as long as she had the detention excuse, she decided to take advantage of it. Tired or not, taking the time to look, really _look, _at Hogwarts was a blessing.

Cady was about ready to begin ascending the stairs when a familiar, kindly voice called out to her.

"Cady?" Remus Lupin, who had been patrolling as part of his prefect's duties, made quick work of catching up with her. He looked a little tired, more under-the-weather than she'd seen him in a while. "The detention lasted that long?"

She scowled and nodded, bringing her hands up to massage her temples. "Thanks to Black, yes."

Remus chuckled and shook his head. "Whatever he did, I'm sure he didn't mean to."

"He tricked me," Cady explained.

"That _does _sound like him," Remus admitted, pensive in expression for the briefest of moments. "But that doesn't mean he meant it, especially not if his free time was on the line, too."

Cady laughed, short and sharp. "That or it's just too fun to irritate me."

"It's a possibility," Remus admitted, gesturing for her to walk ahead of them as a staircase angled itself for the seventh floor. "What happened?"

"He lost me a trip to Hogsmeade," Cady explained. "And I was actually looking forward to going. Lily was going to show me around and everything, Annabel even mentioned butterbeer."

"A devastating loss." Remus smiled at her, and Cady couldn't help but wonder how he had come to align himself with the Marauders. Compared to James and Sirius, he seemed so tame. Peter, on the other hand, was such an anomaly there was no point to questioning him.

Cady sighed and rolled her shoulders back. "I'm sure I'll get over it," she reluctantly admitted. "All the punishment must be character building or something. Put hairs on my chest."

Remus' mouth curled down at the corners in a faint frown as he nodded. "Something like that." The look in his eye was distant, distracted, as he waited for Cady to give the Fat Lady her password and allow them both entrance. She did, choosing not to question what was the matter just yet – she'd confer with Lily and Annabel, maybe, see what they thought.

Almost as soon as she'd taken her first step into the common room, Cady found herself enveloped in a friendly hug from Annabel, who looked to have been the only one to wait up for her.

"Lily said something about being tired and having to get up early," Annabel explained as she moved back to give Cady some space. "Otherwise she would've waited for you, too. Oh, Remus. Hi." She waved briefly to the boy who bid them both goodnight and headed the way of the boys' dorms.

Cady took note of the odd expression on Annabel's face, lifting a dark brow in a question she felt was too rude to ask. Annabel just shrugged at her and grabbed her by the arm. "We should be heading up, too, don't want to wake anybody."

"Since when did that bother anybody around here?" Cady asked, confused. Something, to her, definitely felt off all of a sudden.

Annabel shrugged. "Just being polite," she explained with a dismissive flick of her wrist. "Don't worry about it. Now, we'll talk in the morning – beauty sleep is important."

Cady snorted and plopped down on her bed beside her sleeping cat, Roman. "Beauty sleep is a myth."

"Maybe. Maybe not. It's not up for debate." Annabel pulled an odd face, tugging her hair up into a ponytail. "Beauty sleep, brainy sleep, magical prowess sleep, whatever you call it... Just do it. It'll help with our dream diary homework."

"Crap." Cady dropped her head down onto the soft mattress, neglecting to change or even slip under the red covers. "Please, no work talk. Anything but the work talk."

"Goodnight, Cady."


	5. With a Chance of Spying

"Annie," Cady whispered, perching on the end of Annabel's bed. Lily had taken off some ten minutes before, though not loud enough to wake a certain heavy-sleeping Gryffindor. Cady took it upon herself to mend that problem, not least because she had a whole host of questions she wanted answered.

"Annie, Annie, Annie!" She poked and prodded at Annabel, who tried to yank her blanket up over her head. Cady caught a bundle of it in her fist and pulled it back down with expert timing. "If you don't get up soon, I'll go find some nice cold water."

"You're a witch," Annabel muttered sleepily, propping herself up on her elbows. "You could use a spell to do that for you."

Cady cracked a broad grin. "Thanks for the advice! I'll remember that next time. Should I try to set your hair on fire or conduct a canary orchestra? Victim's choice."

Annabel laughed briefly and shook her head. She reached up and palmed at her eyes to ease away the sleep, yawning."I shouldn't have said anything."

"Right, but you did. I take it as an open invitation to be theatrical and work on my witchy skills." Cady jumped off the bed, shaking her hips in a strange little victory dance. "Score one, Cadence. Anyway, I have something to talk to you about."

"Shoot."

"Last night," Cady said, taking great care not to look Annabel in the eye. The last thing she wanted to do was embarrass the girl by getting creepy on her. "When Remus and I came in, you gave him this really weird look. Explain?"

"What look?" Annabel shifted in place, busying herself with untangling her favourite shirt from a pile by her bedside. It being a Saturday, she had full intentions of flaunting the time out of her androgynous uniform. "I didn't give anyone any looks."

Cady screwed up her nose, narrowed her eyes a little, and tried to perfect the same semi-smile Annabel had worn the night before. "Kinda like this, with redder cheeks and a lot more weird."

"Well if I was doing it," Annabel said, "I don't remember at all. Maybe it was you imagining things, you looked pretty tired by the time you were done. How'd the detention go, anyway? Anything interesting happen?"

"Only if you count the fact that Black- Hey!" Cady scowled and propped her hands on her hips to make herself a more fearsome figure. "No switching the subject when I'm asking the questions. This is about you. Well, you and Remus to be specific, but you get my point."

"Actually I don't." Annabel shrugged and clambered out of her bed. Being the body-proud kind, she had no qualms about stripping down and redressing right in front of Cady. "You're asking me questions about a face you _think _you saw when I was just being friendly."

"Don't make me ask Lily."

"There's nothing to ask her about." Annabel pulled her hair free from the collar of her shirt, smoothing it down with her fingers until it was almost straight. She was lucky enough to be born with best-behaving blonde and a natural flair for outward appearances – the kind Cady quietly envied on a daily basis.

Cady slumped her shoulders in defeat. "Fine, then I have another topic for you."

"As long as this one isn't nonsense, speak on."

"You think there's something strange about him?" Cady asked. "Remus, I mean."

"Why?" Annabel stopped what she was doing to shoot Cady a reproachful look. "Did he pull a face, too, Cady? There's nothing strange about anybody, and we shouldn't be wasting our time gossiping about what is or isn't there."

"So you think there's something there?"

"I didn't say that."

"As good as."

* * *

Annabel's repeated refusal to discuss anything Remus only further fuelled Cady's curiosity – she wouldn't be rude and ask him outright, but the girl wanted to know what was going on with him. With both of them, really, and there was only one way she felt she could go about it. Cady Hayes, super-spy, was about to be born.

She'd made lame excuses to get herself out of breakfast with her friends upon noticing the distinct lack of Marauders at the table. Nobody had argued with her once she'd finally come up with the – she thought – ingenious lie that she felt sick and planned to head down to the Hospital Wing. So, making sure she wasn't followed, Cady slipped out of the hall and took to the stairs for lack of a better starting place.

Gryffindor Tower was her first disappointing stop – almost nobody was around, with the only exceptions a few of studious fourth years trying to get ahead with their school work. Next, Cady tried the corridor which housed her Divination classroom among others, to similar effect.

She kept her head down, eyes narrowed, and movements as feline as she could in a laughable attempt to be discrete. It was perhaps this action which attracted her the attention of a group of Slytherin boys who had taken it upon themselves to convene in the corridor with a rather strange tapestry of a wizard surrounded by dancing trolls.

Cady wasn't stupid, she backed away a few steps when they turned to focus on her. Nor was she cowardly, so she dipped her hand into the pocket of her jacket to retrieve her wand lest the need arrive. "Lads," she said by way of greeting, nodding her acknowledgement. It was more the need for conversation than any real hope they'd be able to help her on her quest that had Cady pose a question. "Don't s'pose you've seen anyone pass through here. Taller than me, broader than me, got a few bits I'm lacking?"

The tallest of them – a sleek brunette Cady thought she'd seen in a group of hexing victims just weeks before – laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound, just sharp humourless, mocking. "Like pure blood, perhaps?" he leered.

Cady steeled herself against the urge to cuss. "Actually," she said, sunny enough, "I was thinking more on the sexual organ front. You know – a guy?"

"And what would you do with one of those?" asked another, a redhead with freckles all over his face. "Thieve magic?"

"I don't think that's possible." Cady wrinkled her nose. "And if it is, it sounds pretty tricky. Well, uh, thanks for your help." She raised a hand to wave at them half-heartedly, turning on her heel. "Nice talking to you all."

It was then that an unfamiliar voice shouted, sending a curse flying close enough by Cady's ear for her fighting sense to kick in – she was a Gryffindor, she just couldn't let herself run away. Instead, wand in hand, she turned back to face them. "Not very friendly," she muttered.

A thousand possibilities flickered through her mind before she grappled a hex and waved her wand toward the red-haired boy. "Engorgio skullus!" She was lucky enough to land a direct hit, watching for a moment in wonder as the boy's head grew and grew.

Cady cursed herself for getting so distracted when she was hit squarely in the chest by the ringleader's 'Flipendo' and sent hurtling back into a wall. Pain flowered in her back, but she forced herself to ignore it and get up as quickly as possible. She fired back with a Jelly Brains jinx only to miss the intended target thanks to disorientation.

"See," the brunette said. "This is why they don't belong at Hogwarts. Mudbloods can't handle themselves."

"Bite me," Cady spat, raising her wand once again.

"Impedimenta!" he cried, striking lucky and freezing his tiny target in her defensive crouch.

Cady watched helplessly as they approached – aside from the boy who had been hit by her hex and another who accompanied him away from the scene. Much as she felt she would have liked to scream just then, not being able to was a blessing in more ways than one. Whatever they did, she was sure she'd get her revenge – giving up was not an option.

She couldn't help but think that if she'd been a better spy, if she'd found her target, there would be someone around to watch her back.

The brunette crouched directly in front of Cady and flashed her a sinister smile. "Look what happens when you try to play with the real wizards. Poor you."

Cady glared at him, biding her time until the jinx wore off. From what she'd heard, it could last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes – either way, it wouldn't be long. The jinxes she had in mind for those boys were endless, mostly thanks to spending time with the rather inventive Marauders. She made a mental note to thank them for their terrible influence.

"Here's one for the road," he said, rising to his feet again. Instead of the spell Cady had expected, the boy drove a swift kick into her gut and backed away laughing. "The kind you're really worth."

_Idiots, _Cady thought as they swaggered away. The pain wasn't as bad as it could have been, she knew she'd be fine in a few hours. _Idiots starting crap for no real reason. Cowards. Swine. I'll show them._

It was only minutes more before she had regained full mobility – though shakily at first – and was on her feet walking. Cady pressed a hand to her stomach, hissing at the sharp stabbing sensation, but otherwise remained as unaffected as she was capable of being. With all thoughts of spying on poor, innocent Lupin gone from her mind, she took a few steps to test herself.

_I could really, really use my bed about now, _she thought miserably, striding up and down the corridor as she debated her next move. It was just as she was about to give in and maybe head to the hospital wing or back to Gryffindor Tower, when something bizarre began to happen. The wall to her right was shifting, changing until there, in the centre of it, was an unfamiliar door.

Cady's brows furrowed and she took a step towards it, weighing up her options in mind. Upon deciding that she'd kick herself later for not investigating, Cady the spy set her hand on the smooth wood and pushed it open.

Her first steps inside were met with a wondrous sight – there were beds _everywhere._ Some tiny, child sized, and others twice as wide as she was tall and covered with mountains of plump cushions. Cady didn't even think before she launched herself onto a quirky four-poster bed with a giant woollen blanket spread across it. Wherever she was, whatever the room was, it was exactly what she needed.

All thoughts of questioning it went out the window as she settled back and allowed herself to relax.

* * *

What felt like hours later, Cady managed to peel herself away from the room of beds on the promise of food. With her aches and pains reduced to minimal twinges, she edged her way through the wooden door and into a thankfully empty corridor. As Cady turned to walk away, her door disappeared.

She practically sprinted down the stairs as they ceased moving where she needed them to, pushing past students as quickly as she could on a quest for food and companionship that wouldn't mean duelling. Cady considered enlightening her friends about her eventful morning as she spotted them around the Gryffindor table, but decided against it when she slid into the empty space between Peter and Lily. Neither Remus nor James were present.

"Hey," Cady greeted, hand darting out to grab a muffin. She shoved half of it into her mouth in one go, brushing off the strange look Lily gave her with a shrug. "I'm hungry."

"You look it," Annabel said. "Probably all that weird look assessment."

"That doesn't make any sense," Cady pointed out. Once she'd swallowed her mouthful, she stuck her tongue out at the girl. "And nor do you – motion dismissed. So what have you all been doing today? You're hard people to find."

"Been in the common room," Peter piped up. His watery eyes shone in his eagerness. "Helping Sirius work on these plans for a -"

Sirius stopped him with a dark look. "Not until the big reveal, Wormtail. We show around here, we don't tell."

"More plans to compromise my free time?" Cady guessed and took another bite of her muffin. "I'm still trying to think of good payback for that one."

"I thought you hated me." Sirius scoffed and shook his head. "Save the payback for a rainy day – when you and everybody else see what we've got in the works, you'll be one with the worshipping masses."

Annabel laughed so hard she spilled pumpkin juice down her front. "Worshipping masses, huh?"

"I think we ought to be worried," said Lily. "This can't be good news."


	6. With a Chance of Pranking

"Today's the day, I can feel it." Cady sighed and gave her reflection a once over in the mirror. Dark hair pulled into a ponytail swirled with her few pink streaks, blue eyes lined with make-up she'd borrowed from Annabel after failing to get enough sleep the night before – she was mediocre, and ready to go.

It was the last day of term before they split for the Christmas holidays so there was a distinct buzz of excitement throughout the school. The girls, together, had made the decision to try and be as festive as possible before they all had to break contact for a short while.

Annabel looked up from where Lily was trying to curl her hair by magic. It wasn't going too well, but both girls were pooling their efforts in hopes of a positive outcome. "The day for what?" Annabel asked. "Do we have an exam or something? A date with Richard, perhaps?"

"I wouldn't need to feel one of those," Cady pointed out. "I'd know in advance. It's the day of the Grand Pranking, ladies, we've been warned. Let's just be extra vigilant – I don't want a polka dotted tongue ever again."

"You did walk right into that one," Annabel said, "Literally. Besides, we don't know it's going to have anything to do with us. Or that it's ready today, for that matter."

"Cady's right." Lily sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this, too. Anything Potter is involved with won't end well for us."

Cady bit down on her tongue to stifle a giggle. "Us as in you," she corrected. "Those meddling kids as a whole are bad news for _us_; Potter is questionably bad news for _you. _He's said it himself, Lil, he's only got eyes for you."

Lily scoffed and abandoned a tendril of Annabel's suddenly frizzy hair, sheathing her wand in her pocket. "That's just ridiculous. We all know that's nowhere close to being true, he just likes to tease me."

"What was that thing about boys who bully you secretly liking you, again?" Cady snorted and tapped her chin, pondering it for a moment. "I seem to remember my mam sticking to that theory like glue."

"_I _am not being bullied," Lily said. She flinched as if remembering something unpleasant. "Sev on the-" Suddenly she stopped, shook her head, and clenched her jaw to avoid saying a single word more.

Cady and Annabel exchanged a look, neither willing to broach the subject of one Severus Snape with Lily. What Annabel knew of their friendship, she had explained to Cady shortly after deciding she was trustworthy enough to handle it. The two of them conspired to avoid all things Snape entirely.

"Well," said Annabel, just after an uncomfortable silence had fallen. She swept her hair back into a braid to hide the strange state it was in, managing to do so with style and sophistication enough to make Cady just a little jealous. "Whatever happens or doesn't, we can't hide up here all day. Wonder if they'll have pancakes."

"They _always _make pancakes," Lily said with a grin. "It's the porridge you really want."

"Ladies, I hate to disagree, but you've both got it wrong." Cady followed as Lily lead the way down from the dormitory, a spring in her step. "It's the muffins that are- Merlin's beard; what have they done?"

Stepping down into the common room was like entering a whole other world. Everything was covered in fragrant white – it took the girls at least a minute to come to the conclusion that they weren't all sharing some bizarre hallucination. The Gryffindor common room had been morphed into a field of lilies, and it didn't take a genius to work out who they were for.

Lily's face was beet red and wrinkled to the point she looked like some great prune. The other girls were finding it hard to suppress snorts and giggles, watching their friend's reaction with both sympathy and amazement.

"It's really not that bad, Lil," Annabel soothed. "Could be a lot worse."

"Worse how?" Lily brought her hands up to cover her face, mortified. She gingerly stepped through a slightly trampled patch of the flowers where other students had tried to escape, watching with dismay as they made a slow recovery in the wake of her polished shoes. "This is awful!"

"It's sweet, really," Cady added, and followed her to the portrait hole. "Think about all the effort they must have gone to getting this ready for you. And, plus side, if this is their big prank, there's nothing else for us to worry about."

"This, ladies," came a booming voice from the boys' staircase. They all stopped still and turned to face smugly grinning James Potter over the lily field. His friends were absent, but ego alone made up for the lack of a few extra warm bodies. "Is just a prelude."

Cady snort-laughed, Annabel groaned, and Lily went berserk. "Potter!" she snapped. "What on earth have you done? Don't you realise that this is-"

"All for you, Evans." His grin only widened as she launched into a spiel of insults and obscenities she didn't look capable of. Annabel rubbed soothing circles on Lily's back, trying to get her to calm down enough that she'd stop reaching for her wand to do who knew what.

James shrugged and jogged down to join them. "All right, all right. Now, if you ladies will make your way down to the Great Hall for the main event, we'd appreciate it."

Annabel was quick to guide Lily out the second James came within arm's reach, while Cady waited behind to ask, "You're not going to torment her publicly, too, are you?"

"Nah." James waved her off, messing his hair with a long-fingered hand until he achieved just the right level of arrogant-and-carefree. "Got much bigger plans than that."

"Oh thank goodness." Cady breathed a sigh of relief. "Because she will send you to the hospital wing next time."

That only made James laugh. "I like that in a woman."

"She's right." Cady snickered. "You _are _an arrogant toerag."

* * *

When the trio of girls – James had excused himself in a hurry and taken a detour on the fourth floor – made it into the Great Hall, they were all three relieved to see no more flowers. In fact, everything looked so ordinary they were, for a moment, lured into a false sense of security as they took the spaces saved for them by Peter Pettigrew. He smiled, friendly enough, and gestured that they should help themselves to the food.

It was only after watching the other students do so that Cady reached out and snatched one of her favourite blueberry muffins. She took a tentative bite. "Not poison," she said to Lily, who watched her closely. "And no tingling tongue, either. It's a good sign."

Annabel nibbled at a chunk of pancake before confirming Cady's prognosis. "We're good."

"Still." Lily turned her nose up when offered a piece of toast. "I think I'll wait until lunch – Potter's thrown my appetite right off."

"You saw them, then," said Peter. His watery eyes held nothing but admiration for the boys and their tricks. "Took two days to get the spell just right."

"Well it wasn't worth the effort," Lily grumbled. Her cheeks were flushed again and she dipped her head to hide it. "Time better spent studying, if you ask me."

It was about then that they were joined at the table by Remus, kind face rounder and healthier looking than it had been in days. For once, the bags beneath his eyes weren't quite so noticeable – and Cady was beginning to pay close attention to those. She'd given up on the idea of spying, however, and resigned herself to wait until the opportunity to ask presented itself to her.

"Morning," Remus greeted, quiet and smooth. There was a mischievous something when he asked, "Have I missed anything?" that served as a reminder to Cady that, while he was much more pleasant to be around, he too was one of the Marauders.

"Not really." Annabel shifted slightly away from him, watching out of the corner of her eye. "Should you have?"

"Wait and see."

"They should serve Veritaserum with breakfast," Lily said. "Then we'd get some answers."

"Until then," Cady added. "It's once more onto the breach and into the unknown. If it helps, I don't think this one is aimed at us. Is it, Remus?"

He shook his head. "You're safe."

"For now!" Peter added, a little too eagerly. He was practically bouncing in his seat, eyes fixed over his shoulder and on the Slytherin table, which told the girls where they ought to be watching. Cady noted the boys who she had been roped into duelling were all there, smug faced and blood-boiling. She still hadn't told anybody about her experience in the corridor, and was beginning to wish she had. Keeping quiet almost made it seem like she'd let them get away with it – she would wait patiently for her revenge. There wasn't a real quidditch match against Slytherin until February.

"Hey," Annabel said, snapping Cady out of her thoughts. "I think I see something."

"Good," said a familiar voice from behind them. Sirius dropped himself into the space beside Cady, and James was quick to join him. "We didn't miss it, Prongs."

"Told you we wouldn't." James chortled. "I've excellent timing."

"Shh." Cady held a finger to her lips, leaning over the table to get a better look. She didn't worry when she both heard and felt her goblet spill, sending water down the front of her robes, there was a far more interesting scene ahead.

At the Slytherin table, there was a cacophony of screams, gasps, and yells from one particular group of students towards the end of the table. One by one, they each were marred by spots of red and gold all over their faces, and then their robes.

The Gryffindors started to laugh, but James cut over them, "Keep watching, there's more to come."

The next group along the table who watched in horror as the Gryffindor colours appeared on their friends were given their own special treat. Up where the ceiling mimicked the sky, there was a sudden onslaught of rain right above their heads. Whoever had performed the charm had considerable skill as it focused solely on eight students, not a single drop straying from within the invisible boundaries.

Next, another group were coloured red and gold as the first had been. As they looked to one another in horror and outrage, the cycle continued. Rain, then dots; dots, then rain. Right up until the charms reached the end of the table where Cady's duelling buddies sat. She waited, keen on seeing them drenched as their peers, to no avail. Just as she was about to ask if it was over, Sirius elbowed her side and nodded over to them.

One by one, Cady watched as the boys' hair shifted from its regular colour into the same bright pink she had in her own. While it might not have been as satisfying as if she'd done something herself, she couldn't help but laugh manically along with the rest of the students as they screamed at each other and the teachers who were rushing down to try and put an end to the madness.

Beside her, Sirius was smirking. "Merry Christmas, Hayes."


	7. With a Chance of Leaving

The Hogwarts Express was a blur of happiness and excitement, students saying their goodbyes and exchanging gifts for the impending holidays. Jammed into one compartment were James, Sirius, Peter, Lily, and Cady.

Remus had said he'd be spending his holidays at the school, despite James' numerous offers for the boy to stay with him as Sirius was going to. Annabel was staying too, and when Cady had asked why, the girl had blushed, shrugged, and claimed it was for a chance to study with a highly sought after Ravenclaw student. While both excuses sounded as much like lies as any of them had ever heard, nobody had the heart to argue it with Christmas just around the corner.

"So, anyone have any cool plans for the next two weeks?" Cady asked in hopes of starting a conversation that didn't revolve around the recent anti-Slytherin prank. While it had, she felt, been perfectly clear who the real culprits were, the professors hadn't been able to wean a confession out of anybody. As a result, the entirety of Gryffindor house from fourth year up – the charms used were deemed too advanced for anyone younger – served at least two night's detention. They'd lost 150 house points, too, but morale was high enough that nobody had been too disturbed by the news. The Marauders assured they would win them back soon enough.

Cady still hadn't figured out how they knew enough about her little duel to attack the boys so distinctively – she wasn't so sure if she wanted to ask them outright for risk of an embarrassing follow up conversation. Nobody wanted to be the witch who couldn't hold her own in a fight.

"Food," James said, and Sirius nodded his agreement. "My mum makes the best Christmas dinners around."

Lily laughed and shook her head. "I beg to differ," she said, tilting her chin up in pride. "My dad's a brilliant cook."

James grinned – he couldn't believe the opportunity he'd been given. "You want to come around and try it?" he offered. "It's the only way to figure out if I'm telling the truth or not, Lil. How's noon on Christmas day sound to you?"

While Lily flushed and shook her head, Cady took pity on the girl and intervened. "It's a matter of opinion, let's leave it at that." She turned to Peter, who, for the most part, was content to listen instead of speak for himself. "You got anything good coming up?"

"I'm staying with my aunt," Peter replied, grimacing. "My parents are off visiting friends."

"Is this the aunt with the penchant for knitted trousers?" James asked, tapping his chin with one long finger. "Or the one who keeps sending you those weird little flowers?"

"It's both," Peter said. "I only have the one."

Cady snickered into the back of her hand. "She sounds fun. It's better than mine, anyway – I get to spend a whole two weeks with my dad in the middle of nowhere. He said something about camping to 'bring out the human in me.'"

"Human?" Lily repeated and arched a coppery brow.

"He's not entirely on board with the magic thing," Cady explained, shrugging. "No big deal."

She'd had long enough to be mad at him for thinking the way he did that it hardly bothered her any longer. The only real tragedy was that her parents had split up because of it. Cady smiled as thoughts of the letter she'd received from her mother a week ago came to mind – she was doing well with her new partner, he'd already proposed to her and the two had plans to marry over the summer. Her mother had even mentioned that she was considering telling him about her daughter, thinking he could make the ideal candidate for a step-father. If all went well, Cady herself would be able to attend the wedding without fear of ruining their relationship.

"...And my parents said Tuney can't wait to see me, too," Lily was saying, her smile wider than any Cady had ever seen on the girl. "They're waiting until I get home to decorate the tree and everything – mum says I can do the star if I really want to."

While Lily was generally the mature, reserved sort, it was nice to see her join the rest of them in excitement over Christmas. It was like the festivities brought the best and brightest out of everyone there.

"You've got to promise to keep in contact," Cady said, turning to Lily. "And we need to figure out how we're going to send Annie her gift, too. It's a bit heavy for just one little owl."

Lily nodded. "I'll take care of it," she assured, patting her trunk, which she had insisted on taking home with her. "Already got the wrapping paper and everything."

Sirius cocked his head, curious. "What'd you get her?"

"Enough of her favourite discontinued body lotion to last her the next three years," Lily explained. "Cady's mum tracked down this woman who hoarded tonnes of it and she's sent it over to my house for safe-keeping."

Cady grinned and nodded her agreement. "Mam's good at that stuff. Ask her to find you anything, anywhere, and she can have it done in under a month. If you ask me, she should have been the witch in the family – she could track all the dark wizards in the world."

The atmosphere made a sudden shift towards the awkward, the sullen, and Cady realised she probably shouldn't have said that. Lucky for her, Lily dived in and saved the situation before it could get any darker.

"So Annie's going to be staying over the holidays," she said, shooting Cady an odd look. "And Remus, too. You think there's anything to it?"

"To what?" Peter squeaked, drawing his attention away from the frosted window he had been scrawling on with pudgy fingers.

Cady let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding and nodded. "Remus and Annabel, there's definitely something there. Or there will be. Just imagine it – the two of them alone in the Gryffindor common room. Queue mood lighting and serenading cupids..."

Sirius started to snicker manically. "Nah. Moony will be stuck with his head in a book the whole time knowing him."

"Yeah," James said. "Have to admit, Pads, it would be funny."

"We could tease him for weeks."

"Months."

"_Years._"

Cady snorted and waggled her brows for comic effect. "Imagine the potential for decorating the common room, then. Posters, banners, _everything. _Just for fun, of course."

"They're still our friends," Lily said. "We have to cut them a little bit of slack. Just a tiny bit."

"Fine." Cady shrugged. "Just the banners. Maybe the quidditch team could give a special performance in the lovebirds' honour."

"We don't even know if anything will happen," Lily added. "This is all just speculation, okay?" She glared over at James and Sirius, the two conversing in hushed tones and chortling all the while. "Nothing is to be taken seriously."

"Yeah." Cady giggled, pressing one hand to her mouth to stifle the sound. "Let's save the real teasing genius for those pesky Slytherins."

"Deal."

* * *

By the time most everybody had filed off the train and onto Platform 9 and ¾, said their goodbyes, and disappeared with there respective relatives, Cady was left almost completely on her own. She hadn't been given the specifics about how she was to reunite with her father, so she was really leaving everything to chance.

Lucky for her, one of the lingering students just so happened to be Richard Ferris. He looked almost as lost as she did, only without the cat carrier and frown she knew she sported. Once the two of them had made eye contact, Richard was fairly quick to stride over, smiling bashfully. "Hey," he said. "You waiting on somebody, too?"

Cady nodded. "I think so. My dad."

"Think so?" Richard laughed. "My parents are always late, I'm pretty used to it by now. You want to wait on the other side of the barrier so they can find us quicker?" He gestured to the wall which lead out into the real world, waiting until Cady nodded to lead the way over. "See you on the other side," Richard said, and grinned at her.

When Cady stumbled through into the crowded King's Cross station, she was glad of Richard reaching over to take her arm. Otherwise she likely would have been caught in the general flow of foot traffic and wound up somewhere wholly out of her comfort zone.

"See anyone you recognise?" he asked.

Cady shook her head. "Not yet. You?"

Richard stood on his tiptoes and looked all around him. He sighed, relieved, and returned to level footing. "Yeah, mine are coming." He gestured off to their right with a flick of his hand, pointing out a middle-aged couple who were the same noble kind of handsome as their son. They held hands and looked more at each other than anything around them – Cady was surprised to see neither fall over.

"Well, uh..." Cady laughed, nervous all the sudden, and tugged her arm out of Richard's grip. She attributed the feeling to her impending abandonment in such a public place. "I guess I'll see you in Potions in the new year, huh?"

Richard turned to her, and Cady was surprised to see a faint flush colour his cheeks. "Yeah." He dragged a hand through his hair, glancing over her shoulder to check his parents weren't quite close enough to be in ear shot just yet. "Listen – you want to, uh, owl me, maybe? Just stay in contact and everything."

Cady's nerves increased tenfold and uncomfortable heat rose to her face. She brought her free hand up to try and cover some of it, unsure what to make of the situation. While Richard was a perfectly nice boy, she didn't know whether or not she wanted to bother him in that way. It felt a little like she'd be invading too far on what had started out as kindness and pity in a lesson she was terrible at.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Richard said when she remained silent. He shrugged, trying and failing to play it cool. "Just an idea."

"No, uh, no. It's fine." Cady flashed a smile, looking down at Roman's carrier. "I'll owl you soon as I get the chance. Promise."

Richard smiled back at her, pearly white teeth a strong contrast against his tanned skin. He paused a moment for thought, eyes flitting from her face to a spot over her shoulder and back again. "Cool," he said. Richard leaned down and dropped a light kiss on Cady's cheek, patted her on the shoulder, and muttered something that sounded like a goodbye.

Before she had the chance to process what had happened, he had rejoined his family and gone far from her line of vision. Cady sighed and peeked down at Roman once again. "Boys are confusing," she said. "Cats would make much better mates."

* * *

Cady had been waiting at least an hour before anybody came for her, sitting on a bench and staring out into space in a vain attempt to keep strangers at bay. Three people had sat beside her at one time or another, and two of them had tried to engage her in conversation about seemingly random subjects. Having been raised wary by her mother, Cady was quick to disassociate herself with them and find a busy space to wait until they had gone before she'd return to her perch to observe.

Life in London was a very strange thing, different from any other place she'd ever seen. Everyone looked so busy, so full of life, that she wouldn't have minded a lifetime to ponder over who was who and who did what. Cady came to the conclusion that their stories must have been far more interesting than her own, since they were moving and she was stuck still.

It was moments after she'd made that realisation when the woman approached her, a uniformed officer following close behind. Cady didn't recognise her at first – it had been a long time, years, even, since she'd set her sights on her paternal aunt.

Aislin Hayes was a buxom woman in her mid thirties, all curves and contrasts with her thick, dark hair and creamy Irish complexion. What was ordinarily a very beautiful face was contorted into some strange mask of emotion Cady couldn't read. The worst, perhaps, was the way the woman's blue eyes watered.

Cady froze, her heart constricting painfully in her chest. She couldn't think, couldn't speak, could barely even focus herself on her aunt as the woman came closer. Her palms were clamming up, Roman's carrier in danger of slipping from her fingers.

It was fear for her cat's safety that brought her around enough she could set him down and listen to the words Aislin was struggling to form.

"Cadence... I'm sorry..." Aislin's accent was much stronger than her niece's, owing to all but three of her years lived in Ireland – she had only moved to London when necessary for her publishing career.

Cady felt the blood drain from her face, heard the busy world around her that wouldn't stop for even a second to let her think. Those people, those _idiots, _why couldn't they give her just one moment? She needed peace.

"Cady?" Aislin had dropped to a crouch in front of her, taken the girl's clammy hands in her own. "Can you hear me?"

The officer was blank-faced as he waited patiently for his queue, keeping a careful and respectful distance instead of trying to intrude like the few faces which had turned to the quickly forming scene. Funny, Cady thought, how grief could capture the public's attention. Take the same crowd and plant them at both the scene of a public mourning or a family's happy reunion and she thought she knew who they'd stop, dumb, to stare at.

Cady cleared her throat over the incessant sobbing of her aunt. "How did it happen?" she asked, voice threatening to break with every word uttered. "How did my dad die?"

Aislin lowered her head, salty tears spilling onto their joined hands as she did so. When the woman couldn't speak, her officer stepped forward and watched Cady's face with steady sympathy. "I think we should take this elsewhere," he said. "Somewhere more private."

"No." Cady shook her head, fighting back her own emotion as best she could. No matter the relationship or lack of, she felt it her duty as a daughter to grieve for the man who was responsible for her being – before that, however, came a curiosity which sickened her. She had to know. "Just... just tell me."

The officer cleared his throat, but before he could speak, Aislin interrupted. She glanced up at her niece, managing to quell the flow of her tears for just long enough to say, "He was driving."

Cady was ashamed to admit to even herself she knew exactly what that meant – he'd done it before, and he said he'd do it again. The man was a drunk without limits, and it was all her fault. If she'd just agreed to stay in school with Annabel, or take Lily up on her offer of staying with their family for Christmas, it would all be fine. But no, because she'd insisted on wanting to spend the time with him, her father had downed the shots to take away the pain of an abnormal child and a broken relationship. He probably hadn't even thought for a single second in hopping behind the wheel of a rented car and driving off to his untimely demise.

Two things happened just then; Cady committed to calling it her fault, and, worst of all, she felt _nothing. _


	8. With a Chance of Rescue

It was Christmas Eve, and Cady hadn't said a word to anyone since departing King's Cross. Officially, she was in the care of her aunt Aislin, and would remain that way until she finished school and could take care of herself. Cady had contacted her mother only once, via owl, to tell her she intended to remain at Hogwarts and didn't want to be bothered with requests to move back over to the States. She'd found it hard to be blunt enough that her mother would listen, but necessity had helped her cause greatly.

Cady had received exactly four letters from her friends – two from Lily, and one each from Annabel and Richard. They had come as a surprise – Cady hoped their owls wouldn't be able to find her hidden up with her aunt, but somehow they did.

Lily and Annabel had only asked how she was doing, how the camping was going, but Richard's letter had been far tougher to read. All awkwardness and bumbling phrases, he had invited her to a café in Hogsmeade infamous for its sickly-sweet Valentine's fare.

She'd tried desperately to forge happiness where it was due and reassure Lily and Annabel that she was enjoying herself, and Richard that she'd consider his offer, but putting quill to parchment came up empty. Her only resolve was to ignore it all until she had to go back to school. From then, she would lie through her teeth.

She had vague memories of a friend she'd had as a little girl losing her sister and all the faux-caring and pitying looks that came with it. Friends were inclined to lie and say they wanted to talk about it; teachers slackened their rules and donated just enough kindness the child's way that they didn't have to get involved; and strangers pretended to mourn along with the families of the deceased. Cady didn't want that.

Aunt Aislin, on the other hand, seemed hooked. She had regular visitors who brought with them tea and sympathy – more often than not accompanied by an apple pie or some strange pasta dish for their troubles. The woman was too busy planning a funeral for her brother to give much notice to his absentee niece, the witch who whiled away her time in the attic room she'd been moved into so that she wouldn't have to face the world.

It was a happy arrangement on all parts.

And so Cady slept. She spent most of her days dreaming of better things, healthier things, that took her mind away from the guilt of her father's death. In truth – and she was scared to admit it – after realising just how big a part she must have played in it, Cady felt more guilt that she couldn't pretend to grieve than guilt it had happened in the first place. She was a horrible person, by her own estimation.

When the fourth owl of the holidays arrived, Cady decided to add horrible friend to her list of attributes, too. She pulled the letter free of the bird's leg, trying to shoo it away from her open window so that she wouldn't have to glare as it waited patiently for her reply. This owl – small, black, and scruffier than the rest – refused to be swayed from its perch.

Cady shot it what she hoped was a ferocious glare, stepping back until her legs collided with the stiff side of her bed. Mattress springs squeaked in protest as she lowered her weight onto them, crossing her legs and sitting the letter in her lap. She glanced at the handwriting on the envelope, trying to figure out who it was from so that she could decide whether or not it was worth opening. Not from Lily; not Annabel; not Richard – thankfully; and not her mother. It looked like a boy's, and so she had no choice but to pander to her curiosity.

_Cady,_

_What's going on with you? Evans sent us an owl asking if you'd sent anything along to us yet – she sounded pretty worried, too. Said your mum reckons something's up and you need talking to._

Cady laughed aloud, the sound harsher than anything she thought herself capable of. So her mother had reached out to Lily Evans, of all people? Even the thought of it made her blood boil – the woman had been so quick to accept her plea to remain with Aislin and hadn't asked a word about how she was doing. If she supposed sneaking around her to make her friends do all the hard work was the way about making things better, she had a lot to learn about parenthood.

There was the tiniest part of Cady that ached to thank Lily – at least _someone_ was trying. Discretely, too, which was far better than a 'sorry for your loss' letter. Lily deserved all the thanks in the world for that one small mercy. Cady suppressed her smile with the notion that she ought to read on.

_Anyway, dad says we're having some big Christmas party and we should invite some people along. If you want to come, just send the owl back and we'll figure the rest out from there. Oh, and if you do, __please__ make sure Evans comes._

_Prongs, only the best and most talented Gryffindor ever to walk the earth. _

Cady couldn't control the second short burst of laughter – this more genuine than the last – as she read on. It was a far better thing to hear she'd been invited to a party than she'd been asked to some odd sharing circle, which was one of her worst fears just then. If wizards even initiated those, she wasn't quite sure, but if they did they were sure to be disastrous.

Better still was the omission of any lovely, kind-hearted boy asking to take her to a café where she knew things would get far too touchy-feely for her needs just then, and too quickly. Cady could not handle that.

She set the paper down on her leg, chewing the inside of her cheek until she could taste a little copper blood. While being invited was an amusing prospect, Cady wasn't so sure whether or not she could actually stomach attending. As far as she knew, it was just another ploy. Maybe they were going to be lured into a whole town painted white with lilies and desperate pleas for affection from James Potter. Lily would hate it.

The owl watched Cady as she thought, its great, unblinking eyes a welcome focal point in her world of monotony. She was about to get up and try once more to shoo him away when her aunt's voice called up to her, "Cady! You have visitors."

Gone was the thick layer of grief and croaking which Cady was growing to associate with the woman, and replacing it was sheer wonder – almost as if she'd seen a ghost. That thought alone was enough to have Cady flying down the stairs in seconds. She paid no mind to her own tousled appearance – hiding in the attic meant she stayed in messy hair and too-big pyjamas – far more curious as to who had come to visit. She surprised even herself with how much energy she had just then.

Their voices carried up to her before she was close enough to get a good look. Cady sighed and froze in place to listen to them.

"Sorry again to surprise you." That was Lily, all manners and calm. "It's just, she hasn't responded to anyone's owls and we were getting worried."

"She hasn't been speaking much," said Aislin, quiet as if afraid. "Or at all, really. I tried talking to her, but..."

Cady frowned, angered at the lie. Since their brief moment of joined mourning at the train station, the two had avoided each other almost completely. There had been no real attempts to talk from either party.

"We get it." James. He was there, too? "Evans said we should come down and check on her – take her out for a bit."

There was a snicker then, followed by another new voice. Sirius. How big a crowd had Cady managed to attract? She'd only been at Hogwarts for a few months and already she was developing an entourage. Bless them all for trying.

"You're making it sound like she's our pet or something, Prongs."

"Nah. That's you, mate."

It was the familiar teasing that tugged her out of her hiding place. Cady descended the stairs, pushing her frizzy hair back behind her ears in an attempt to look somewhere close to composed. "I only just got your owl," she said, addressing James first. The three of them were stood by the fireplace, a little soot on the boys that suggested they had travelled via floo powder. Aislin kept her distance, apparently as uncomfortable with wizards as her late brother had been.

"Merlin's beard." James groaned and rolled his eyes. "We sent the thing days ago. He's bloody useless."

"He's still upstairs, if you wanted to take him back with you," Cady said. Her voice was flat, emotionless, but none in the room had the ill manners to question it. "Didn't want to move when I tried to make him."

Sirius jabbed James in the stomach with his elbow. "_Told _you muggle post would be quicker."

James snickered. "Liar."

"I'm not lying, you-"

Lily cleared her throat to break them up, though Cady almost wished she hadn't. The two girl's exchanged a second of eye contact before Lily crossed the room to hug her friend. She was gentle, but not so much she was treating Cady as though she would break. "You look tired," she said.

Cady shrugged and stepped out of the embrace before she couldn't control the urge to snap. She looked down at her feet, wiggling her toes in the duck slippers which had been a present from her mother two years ago. "It's fashionable these days, just you wait until Annabel hears."

"You can tell her all about it," Lily said, throwing a cautious look to the boys messing around behind her. She turned back to Cady, unsmiling. "Mind if we head upstairs to talk? It won't take long."

"What about-"

"They'll be fine with your aunt." Lily placed her hand on the small of Cady's back, not taking no for an answer as she urged the girl back the way she'd come. "This is important."

"What is?" Cady stepped out of Lily's reach, leading the way up the stiff wooden stairs to her room. She didn't have energy enough to be embarrassed about the messy state it was in – discarded parchment on the floor, dirty clothes in a pile, and James' owl still in the open window.

Lily sighed and took up a perch on the edge of Cady's bed, polite enough not to show disgust if she felt it. "Your mum wrote me a letter, Cady."

"Well she didn't write me one, so I don't know where this is going," Cady snapped, curling her hands into fists and stuffing them into the pockets of her pyjama bottoms in hopes that Lily wouldn't see.

"She told me what happened."

"Good for her." Cady turned her back on Lily, unable to face her with the bad mood she was so suddenly engulfed in. "But she had no right to contact you about my personal life. Some things I don't want shared with the world."

"I didn't tell anybody else," Lily said. "The boys don't know exactly what happened. Not really."

"Oh?" Cady frowned. "So what do they think they're here for?"

"To make me feel better. And to recruit you for James' dad's party," Lily explained. "It was a spur of the moment thing. When I got my invite, I figured it was exactly the kind of thing you might like to do."

"Why's that?" Cady asked, genuinely curious. She wouldn't admit it aloud, but she felt as though she was testing Lily – if things went according to plan and the girl steered clear of the pity talks, everything would be fine. Otherwise, she just wasn't sure if she could keep up with the friendship charade.

So much for lying through her teeth.

Lily sighed. "I know how awful it can be getting cooped up on your own. Especially after..." She cleared her throat. "Point being, I can't go to Potter's on my own, and I wanted to know if you'd come with me."

"Why are you going at all?" Cady breathed out the last of her rage, facing Lily once she felt calm enough to do so. She was under no illusions that Lily intended to endure James for anything other than Cady's sake – denied attraction or no – and only wondered if the other girl would say it to her face.

"Because I am," Lily said, shrugging slim shoulders. A resolve settled over her and she rose to her feet. "Now get dressed, we should leave soon if we're going to stand a chance of saving your poor aunt any embarrassment from those two."

Cady spluttered a laugh. "Leave them with her. It's no more than she deserves just now."

"That bad, huh?"

"Worse than you know."


	9. With a Chance of Partying

It took only an hour for the four of them to find themselves back at James' house, with his kindly mother donating a spare room to the girls so they'd have a chance to talk and get ready. Cady was wary to see people pouring in and out carrying oddly shaped lights, blocks of ice to be carved, and at least four different Christmas trees. The only consolation was to hear that the party itself would be held outside in the open.

"Doesn't this all seem a little too well planned for last minute?" Cady asked Lily, only once they were alone again. "It's suspicious."

Lily shrugged. "It'll be fine," she said. "Just don't think about it. Annabel should be coming along, too – that's good, right?"

Cady didn't answer, just forced herself to nod and knotted her hands together in her lap. A nauseous feeling settled deep in her stomach, one that wanted her to make some kind of excuse and just go home. She could bail herself out of Hogwarts, too, attend some muggle college online and become a shut in.

_Don't be stupid, _Cady thought. _You could be just as good a recluse after finishing at Hogwarts. Maybe even better – magic has to make it easier to hide successfully._

"Cady?" Lily was waving her hand in front of Cady's blank face, trying to recapture her attention. "You okay?"

"Fine," Cady said, for what felt the thousandth time in such a short while. "Just thinking is all. How long is Annabel supposed to be? How's she getting here? Were we supposed to bring..."

Lily stopped her short with an alarmed look, standing straight and squaring her shoulders as if trying to toughen up for something. "Look, Cady, I know this must be hard for you. Your mother didn't tell me much, but from what she did say, I can understand that-"

"Don't, Lily. Just don't. Drop it and let's just try to get through the evening as quick as we can." Cady squeezed her eyes shut and brought her fingers up to massage her temples. It took her a long while, but eventually she managed to smile. The lying was her only option, a survival instinct of sorts. "Sorry if I'm being snappy, Lil, I'm just not a big party person."

"Mm." Lily looked unconvinced, but thankfully chose not to pursue the matter. She crossed the room to where a rucksack full to bursting leant against a wall, and beside it a shiny black shoebox. "Well we ought to be getting ready, anyway, I think I have something that will fit you. Nothing fancy."

Cady wrinkled her nose at the thought. "This is a serious party, isn't it?"

Lily just nodded, digging through a bundle of fabric she pulled free of the rucksack. "Don't worry about it."

"I'll try not to, but no promises."

* * *

The Potters' garden was a mass of red, green, and gold with witches and wizards pouring in from every direction. Cady, Lily, and Annabel had paused in the kitchen, checking appearances for last minute adjustments in the gleaming windows.

All three wore dresses to startlingly different effect. Annabel was sultry and smooth in gold silk which clung to her slim figure like a glove. Lily, on the other hand, had donned something long and green which matched her eyes and gave her a demure kind of a charm. The girls teased that it was sure to attract James' attention, which Lily wholeheartedly denied. Last there was Cady who was stuck in a knee length blue dress borrowed from Lily – she thought it both clashed with her hair and washed out already pale skin, but didn't complain for fear they'd spend hours looking for a replacement. She was content to look mediocre at best in hopes that it would help her blend into the background.

When faced with some of the more elaborate robes and costumes worn by the Potters' guests, Cady was happy to see she wouldn't be sticking out in the slightest.

The three girls headed out into the back together, keeping quiet and observant with matching polite smiles and cautious footing. Lily was the first to break the silent trance, pointing out an ice sculpture shaped like a winged troll. "Isn't that bizarre?" she said, stifling giggles with a cupped hand. "I don't think I've ever seen one of those before."

"My parents top our tree with something similar," Annabel said. "Must be a wizard thing."

"Or a crazy thing," Cady added, forcing joviality into her tone. It was harder than she thought. "We'll never know."

Annabel shot her an irked look, though a nudge from Lily at her side stopped her from saying anything outright. Despite Lily's assurances, Cady was doubtful that any of her friends were in the dark as to what was going on – or, at least, what Lily _thought _that was. For a smart witch, she sure liked to meddle.

"Anyone want anything to drink?" Lily asked, nodding over to a table where a few fellow Hogwarts students were gathered. Cady recognised some from the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff quidditch teams, and some of the fourth year boys she'd seen assisting the Marauders with an outlandish portable swamp prank. She was glad thus far not to have seen Richard at all – that would have been making a bad time even worse, no matter how nice he might have been about it.

Most everyone was smiling and laughing, all worries thrown out the window with the festivities of Christmas and joys of getting to see old friends – the Potters seemed to have rather a lot of those. Two elderly wizards standing in the centre of the improvised grass dance-floor were waving their wands in unison, trying to outdo each other with a show of sparks and fake snow that rained down over the happy attendees.

Lily shook Cady's shoulder gently. "Hey," she said, green eyes wider and more cautious than usual. "You want anything? I think they have butterbeer."

"No, thanks." Cady clutched at her stomach, hating the feel of the rumpled dress beneath her fingers – it really wasn't her style at all. "I think I'll just go find somewhere to sit or something. Think I saw Frank Longbottom over there, I'll join him."

"Right." Lily, while clearly still worried, let the matter drop as she took Annabel's arm and tugged her towards the drinks table. The two kept their heads close together, whispering back and forth as soon as they were out of Cady's earshot. She almost wished she cared what they were saying.

Cady stepped out of the way of a tall wizard in green and his humorously small companion just in time to avoid being trampled, her heart beating fast in her chest. The world around her was beginning to perk up tenfold – obscure wizard rock was blasting out of levitating speakers loud enough to draw people out of their shells and into the dance, bodies smashing together in both wizard and muggle moves alike. On her way to try and find some solitude, Cady was almost hit in the nose by a witch and her violent interpretation of the Hippogriff. It was just her luck that a plump hand reached out and pulled her free of the crowd before things became too heated.

Peter Pettigrew smiled shyly, releasing Cady from his grip the second her eyes flitted to her wrist. "Sorry about that," he mumbled and took a step back. Peter was the first of her friends not to give her either the pitiful or worried looks she was growing used to. In fact, he was watery-eyed and oblivious as always.

"It's fine." Cady breathed a sigh of relief – it was so easy to both trust and ignore Peter, the anomalous Marauder, that she actually found herself happy for a brief moment of time. If she could find a way to hang around him for the rest of the night, it would be a good enough ploy that Lily and the others could leave her be without so much worry. Perfection.

"Are you here with your aunt?" she asked. "The one with the knitted trousers?"

Peter nodded and pointed one pudgy finger into the crowd of dancers. Sure enough, there was a woman remarkably similar in appearance to the mousy boy, her legs encased in a host of different coloured wools.

Cady wrinkled her nose and emitted a short laugh. "It could be worse," she said, "I saw a man with what looked like half a bear on his head just now."

The colour drained from Peter's face. "That's her boyfriend."

"Poor you." Cady found it much easier to laugh the second time around – the simplicity of Peter Pettigrew's humiliation was a pleasant distraction. "The holidays not been fun so far, then?"

"Could be worse," Peter repeated her earlier sentiment, eyes focused on the floor at his feet. "I'm just glad James owled when he did, otherwise I would've been stuck having Christmas alone with the two of them. There was going to be a wizard chess marathon and carolling."

"Wizard chess is fun."

"Not when you've got to be the commentator," Peter said. "I'm not allowed to actually play until I can myself three times in a row."

Cady, again, laughed. "Is that even possible?"

Peter shrugged, edging backwards as the volume of dancers increased. Cady was quick to accompany him, planting her hands on his shoulders and pushing him further and further until they'd long surpassed what she guessed as the limits of the Potters' property. Their house backed onto wide open space which Cady guessed must have been used for farming in the summer, but for then was almost completely empty.

"Uh." Peter rubbed at his nose with the back of his hand. "Where are we going?"

"Far enough away not to get stepped on," Cady explained. "Unless you want to go back and dance. I won't keep you against your will."

"It's, uh, fine." Peter stood awkwardly to her right, shifting from foot to foot. He kept his eyes on the party lest anyone come looking for him, trademark uncertainty the only expression he sported.

Cady was amazed, watching him, how the boy could be so lacking a backbone. While he was perfectly fine to be around – not nearly as nice as Remus – there was something odd about Peter she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was as though he moulded to his surroundings instead of being his own person.

She cleared her throat, plagued by the desire to find something, anything, to say that would break the silence she thought she wanted. Cady flinched at the realisation that silence in company could be far lonelier than her days spent hiding in her aunt's attic. "So... Any more major pranks coming up I should be worried about?"

Peter shrugged and tried to play it cool. "The usual," he said, tapping the side of his nose in a gesture Cady had seen Sirius use in mocking a hundred times or more. "Wait and see."

"Mmhmm." Cady bit her lip to staunch a smile, squinting against a sudden burst of bright light from the Potters' party. Someone was setting off fireworks, and a lot of them. For a minute or so, Cady managed to redirect her attention to the primarily red and gold sparks shooting up into the night, listening to the distant chants and cheers until something grabbed at her from behind.

Cady jumped and yelped in surprise, ready to fumble for her wand and attack until her hand was caught in another much warmer.

"Why'd you kidnap Wormy?" Sirius asked, releasing his hold the second her body relaxed. "He's missing all the fun – his aunt just challenged James' dad to firewhisky drinking contest."

"She did?" Peter about jumped out of his skin, glancing from Sirius to Cady and back again, as if asking permission to go and see for himself.

Sirius nodded and shooed him off with a flick of his wrist. "Go have a look."

That was enough to send Peter scurrying back, and Cady could hear the obscenities muttered under his breath as he went. She groaned in dismay at the prospect of being stuck in the dark with Sirius Black – like almost every girl in Hogwarts, she had been warned on more than one occasion about his broom cupboard antics. A quiet field couldn't be too different.

"Was there something you wanted?" Cady asked, pushing herself into an emotionless mask as soon as her nerves calmed down enough to warrant it. "Aside from stealing my company."

"Steal you back to the party, maybe?" Sirius chortled, his smile bright in the dark. "I'm on patrol – just in case any dozy prats try to sneak in. Or out."

"I'm not a prat." Cady shook her head. "And I'm not sneaking away. I just needed a minute."

"With Wormtail?"

"We were talking, Black," Cady snapped. So quick she found herself leaping towards anger as an escape route, and, while she may not have admitted it out loud, it felt _good. _She liked the way her fingers were curling towards the wand slipped under her dress for safekeeping. "Far as I'm aware, there's nothing wrong with that."

Sirius smirked at her, lifting a heavy brow in question. "Ah, but what kind of talking would you need to drag him out here for? Some kind of secret, obviously." He faded into a thoughtful silence that made Cady uncomfortable, but, after less than thirty seconds, pumped his fist victoriously. "Got it! Prongs owes me twenty galleons."

Despite herself, Cady was intrigued. "Why would he owe you money?"

"We made a bet."

"No shit." Cady sighed and rolled her eyes. "What was the bet?"

"That would be telling." Sirius threw his head back and laughed. "I was worried for a little while that git was going to get my money. Who would've thought it would be _Wormtail _of any of us? Oh, this is good."

Cady's fingers brushed the solid edge of her wand, quick to curl themselves around it and pull it free. She aimed it straight for Sirius' throat. "Tell me."

"Under-age magic," Sirius tutted. He looked nothing less than amused with the situation, neglecting to make a move in defence. "That's a punishable offence, Hayes."

"I'll make sure it's blamed on you," Cady grumbled, lowering her arm a little. Heat had risen to her cheeks and her breathing had quickened – a good sign, she thought. She was already beginning to feel better. "I know all kinds of curses to make you scream like a little girl."

"Oh?"

Cady nodded, her lips twitching into a grin. "Lily can be quite inventive, she's taught me a thing or two."

"Remind me to let James know next time he tries to woo her," Sirius said. "Or just after. Either works."

Cady snorted. "You wouldn't be that cruel to someone you actually like."

Sirius snickered and shook his head. "Did we ever tell you about the time we charmed Moony to hang upside-down from the ceiling in the library?"

"Why would you-"

"Nobody is immune," Sirius said. He'd stuffed his hands into the pockets of his trousers, completely relaxed in the face of Cady and the wand she now had pointed at his chest. "You going to get on with it or what? We're missing all the fun out here."

Cady narrowed her eyes into what she hoped was a ferocious glare, clenching her jaw. She might have felt perfectly at home with the threats, but there was a small part of her that didn't want to risk suspension for under-age magic – she valued her time away at school far too much for that. Instead, she decided to settle things the muggle way. Wand and all rationality abandoned, Cady lashed out in a flurry of fists and meaningless cuss words.

To his credit, Sirius didn't move a muscle as her hands collided again and again with the quidditch-toned muscle of his chest. It was only when one of her blows came close to his face that he bothered to act, catching her fist with ease. "About done there?"

Cady was panting as she pulled her hand back to her side, soreness spreading from her knuckles right up to her elbows. "For now," she wheezed. For a beater, she wasn't in as good shape as she'd hoped. Cady made a mental note to speak with James about a little more practice time.

"Good." Sirius snorted. "Feeling any better?"

She could only shrug at that, unsure of the answer herself.

Sirius nodded, reaching down for her discarded wand and holding it out as a kind of peace offering. "Even better," he said. "Now for the really fun part – we talk."


	10. With a Chance of Breaking

"What do we have to talk about?" Cady asked, scowling at the muddy ground. The shoes she'd borrowed from Annabel would need a good cleaning spell before they could be worn again – she made a note to ask Lily which the best was later on.

Sirius began to pace in a circle around her, like a shark stalking its prey. "How about those Kenmare Kestrels? Heard they got beat by the Montrose Magpies again. Shame, really, didn't think your team could take another loss this season."

"You want to talk to me about _quidditch_?" Cady spluttered a laugh and shook her head, the last remnants of her anger beginning to dissipate. "Well, fine, but let's pick one a little closer to home. We do have that match against the Slytherin team coming up soon, no way are we allowed to lose that one."

"Relax." Sirius snickered. "Nobody's talking about throwing the match. Mention that around James and I wager he'd go for an illegal hex or two."

"Worse than that," Cady added. "There's always the unforgivable curse route."

"He wouldn't do that." Sirius was quick to jump to his best friend's defence, all joking gone and replaced by alien seriousness.

Cady held up her hands in surrender, letting out a low whistle to fill the uncomfortable silence. "Sorry," she muttered, though the sincerity of it was dubious at best. "Just thinking out loud."

"I think they call it thinking so you think _before _you say it," Sirius replied.

"Could you say thinking a few more times? Didn't quite make an impact the first time."

Sirius stopped his pacing and bowed at the waist. "Happy to help." He cleared his throat. "I think that you think that I think that maybe we think that thinking can be-"

"It was supposed to be sarcasm," Cady said. She shut her eyes and brought her hands up to rub at her temples. "Am I allowed some time alone now? Think I'm a big enough girl to deserve at least that much."

"Nah." Sirius stood on his tiptoes, increasing the already sizeable difference between them. "When you're big as me, maybe, but until then..." He shrugged and flashed her a quick smirk. "Well, you're just stuck with me."

"Can I get an explanation with that?"

"Told you already – we get to talk." Sirius ran a hand through his dark hair and arched his back into a yawn. "Now, are you really going to make this more difficult than it has to be?"

Cady hid her surprise with a practised scowl and her chin tilted downward. "It'd be even easier if you didn't do it. And for that matter, _why _do we need to talk? Beater stuff? Plans to force Lily to realise she fancies James? Maybe you need somebody to finally break the veil on all that puberty stuff. Changes to your body can be tricky."

"Finished?" Sirius laughed humourlessly, strain clear on his handsome face. "I'm out here because you've scared Peter, James is busy mooning over Lily – who, by the way, doesn't look that unhappy with it tonight, Remus is still at school, and Annabel is Merlin knows where with some Hufflepuff." He paused just long enough to take a breath before fixing Cady with a very parental glare. "I'm the back-up plan."

"If there's a back-up plan, that implies there was an original," Cady said. "I want to know what that one was."

Sirius shook his head, suppressing a groan. "Knew I shouldn't have agreed to this. They said you'd be bloody difficult."

"That wasn't an explanation."

"It's a wonder you weren't put in Ravenclaw with that brain."

"You're clearly just as witty," muttered Cady, scowling. "And evasive, too. Really, Black, I'd like to know why we're here if not just to irritate me some more."

"Wanna know what I've noticed?" Sirius snickered and began to pace again, hands knotted at the small of his back to give him the look of some sort of duck. It didn't suit him any more than his usual swaggering gait.

"Probably not, but you're going to tell me anyway."

"Ten points to Gryffindor!" Sirius cheered. In a split second he returned to pseudo-pscyhological pondering. "When you get pissy, you don't use people's names."

Cady sighed and rolled her eyes, the cool night air beginning to seep into her bones. She shifted from foot to foot and folded her arms in a vain attempt to secure some of her body heat – Lily hadn't bothered to bring any jackets along. "Sounds like I should be giving you house points, too, _Black._"

"Maybe." Sirius shrugged. "But still not the point. If you're pissy, that means something's wrong, ergo you need the talking to. Would you look at that? The grand plan's been revealed, _Hayes, _and isn't it impressive."

"Right. You're out here because there's something wrong with me," Cady repeated, biting her lip against a snigger. "That, or someone really didn't want you cramping their style." She glanced back to where the party was being held. "You said James was doing better with Lily already, right? That says something to me."

"Bollocks."

"It's true." Cady ran her cold hands up and down her forearms to fight the goosebumps. "Otherwise Lily would have caught me before we came here for 'the talk'. It's more her thing than yours, I'd bet."

Sirius then smirked – it was a victorious little gesture – and pumped a fist in the air. "You've missed the even more obvious possibility that I'm lying, and nobody sent me out here at all. Maybe I'm just here to make your life a misery."

"Sounds like you," Cady conceded to admit, sticking her tongue out in a childish show of immaturity. "But if that was the case, you probably would have brought a portable swamp or some itching potion disguised as water along with you. I know how this works."

"You insult me." Sirius narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips into a pout to rival Lily's best. "I could do far better than that if I wanted to."

Despite herself, Cady was giggling. "Oh, really? I heard Remus was the brains of the operation. You're just the – how do I put this nicely? - _bulk._"

Sirius took that as a cue to flex his arms and show off years worth of quidditch training gone to good use. It was only seconds into this display that the two of them found themselves laughing real, side-splitting laughter – appropriate or not, it worked wonders to ease the atmosphere.

"But seriously," Sirius said as his chuckles died down. "I'm way more than bulk. The pink haired Slytherin tribe was my idea."

"I actually wanted to ask you about that." Cady nodded to herself as if to confirm that fact. "How did you know to pick them? I'm guessing it wasn't a luck of the draw thing."

Sirius snorted. "Like I said, should've been Ravenclaw."

"That wasn't an answer."

"You really think those Slytherin prats could win a duel and keep their mouths shut about it?" He shrugged. "It was pretty easy to find out who they were – bloody berks like to brag a lot when they think they've got a reason to."

"If you think about it, they did," said Cady, almost defensive of them. "I _did _lose fair and square. Ish."

"Ish." Sirius gestured to her with the wave of a hand. "Weren't you outnumbered?"

"Would that have stopped you?"

"No, but-"

"Exactly." Cady smiled, pleased. "So while it was nice to see, they didn't exactly deserve the special punishment."

"Still gits, though."

She nodded and brought her hands to her mouth, breathing warm air into her palms. It was a pleasant feeling, like sitting by the fire in Gryffindor common room on a particularly cold night. "I wasn't objecting to that one."

Sirius barked a laugh. "Good. Now we just need to teach you how _not _to lose and you'll fit in just fine," he said. "Could probably use a little less getting beaten in Defence Against the Dark Arts while you're at it. Stay out of those pesky detentions."

"Winning sparring duels won't improve my chances with Professor Rogers," Cady pointed out. "You're walking proof of that."

"That's because I'm a little sod," Sirius said, flashing her an amused look. "Moony could get away with murder in that class and you know it. Evans, too, if she tried it. She's too much of a goody two-shoes to test the water."

"I'm sure there's something in the friendship handbook that says 'Thou shalt not diss thy brother's girl'," said Cady. "Maybe you ought to take a second look at it and reconsider."

Sirius rolled his eyes and stifled a yawn with the back of his hand. "No thanks, I've got enough reading homework as it is. I'll just improvise."

"It's your funeral." Cady shrugged and faded into a calm silence, thankful the short burst of anger from earlier in the evening had made her feel that smallest bit better. All she wanted was to curl up in bed with Roman and too much ice cream for human consumption – that was the epitome, she thought, of a night's comfort. From then it was all watching and waiting in silence for the holidays to end and Hogwarts to begin again.

She shook her head as the first tendrils of worry clamoured for her consciousness – how would the other students treat her? Had she done her homework? Was she ready to take her exams? Would she be able to miss the funeral?

"I'm going back now," Cady said, already beginning the short trek to the Potters' garden before Sirius had the chance to answer.

It didn't take him long to fall into step beside her. "You don't have to," he offered. "If you don't want to. Lily doesn't have to know if you choose to go hide up inside for the rest of the night – I can cover for you."

Cady spared him a glance sidelong. "I don't need help, and I don't need to hide away," she said, forcing away the voice that wanted her to accept the offer. That would have been too much like opening the gateway to her own private pity party. "I'll be fine."

Sirius' hand shot out and touched her cold arm, burning the skin there. "You don't have to pre-"

Her reaction was instinctual, quick enough that Cady herself had no time to think and prevent herself from doing it. Her arm shot out and collided with Sirius' nose, resulting in a sickening 'crunch!' and a steady stream of blood trickling down his chin.

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!" Cady brought her hands back to cover her mouth, watching as his expression switched from shock to horror as he realised the damage done. It didn't take a genius to know that Sirius Black was terribly proud of his looks. Cady was about to reach for her wand to try to fix it when her victim made an odd noise in protest.

Sirius tipped his head back and cupped a hand under his chin to try to stop the worst of it hitting his shirt. "Go fetch James' mum," he mumbled.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Sure. Sure I'll do that." Cady nodded, but it took a foot nudging the back of her leg to snap her back to reality and send her on her way. She was much quicker than she thought herself capable of, and glad when the first person she collided with happened to be a sulking James Potter.

"What's up with you?" he asked, steadying Cady before she could fall and land on her behind. By the sour look on his face, he must have done something to upset Lily. "Where've you been?"

"IthinkIbrokeBlacksnose," Cady spluttered, her words coming out an inaudible mess. She paused and sucked in a deep breath to calm herself enough to say, "I was out there with Sirius-" Cady gestured behind her with a shaking hand "- and I hit him and I think I broke something. He's bleeding and everything."

Where she had expected him to get mad at her, James only started to laugh. "You what?"

"I'm serious!"

James continued to laugh until Cady squeaked in protest, nodding at her. "I'll go get mum," he said, such resignation in his voice that she thought the situation couldn't have been entirely unexpected. "Wait there."

* * *

By the time the Potters' party was coming to a close, Cady had danced with almost every wizard in sight to avoid having to spend another second with Sirius. She couldn't bring herself to go and apologise as he and James laughed and teased each other, causing mischief all the while. Nobody claimed to be angry with her, but Cady felt immensely guilty.

"Cady!" Lily latched onto her friend's wrist and tugged her away from her place chatting to Peter's eccentric aunt. "I've been looking all over for you – what happened?"

"You mean after you sent Sirius to come bug me?" Cady frowned, residual annoyance resurfacing.

Lily's brows knit together in confusion and her mouth opened to form a small 'o'. "Cady, nobody saw him until he came back with all that blood down his front."

"Huh?" It was Cady's turn to be confused – her guilt worsened, too. "Then why'd he say..."

"Say what?"

"Never mind." Cady shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

"Good," said Lily. "You've got to hear Potter's latest, I can't believe he'd..."

Cady didn't hear much more of what Lily said to her, though she took the cues to nod and comment on the stupidity of James' latest whenever she noticed them. Her mind was too caught up in a number of bizarre thoughts. And at the centre of them all?

Sirius Black.


	11. With a Chance of Changing

"I broke his nose, Annie," Cady said, smoothing her clammy palms over her knees. She, Lily, and Annabel were huddled in one corner of a compartment on the Hogwarts Express heading back from their Christmas holidays. Since the Potters' party, Cady had managed several successful outings to Diagon Alley and beyond with the girls, all the while avoiding any conversation surrounding either her home life or the meddlesome Marauders. It had been a solid plan, right up until Annabel decided it was time to clear the air – the fact that she wanted to tease Cady back to normal didn't help, either. At least it was better than any more 'talks.'

Annabel laughed and shook her pretty head, looking sideways at their compartment door as if waiting for something. "You can't have been the first person to do it," she said. "Especially not with the way they were laughing about it."

"It wasn't funny," Cady grumbled, earning herself a sympathetic look from Lily, who was quick to jump in.

"I think it's a blessing," she said. "It's worked so far to keep the lot of them away, maybe we'll make it through a few days at least without incident. Oh, Merlin, what if people start to talk?"

It was Cady's turn to be comforting, and she took to the role like a fish to water. "Let them, Lil, it's not like you did anything bad. One dance with James isn't going to set the rumour mill on fire – people know you too well for that."

"She's right," Annabel said. "I heard three Hufflepuff girls in the corridor talking about how you must have done it for a bet."

"I wouldn't do that!" Lily's cheeks flushed with colour and she scowled out the window. "I'm not that bad, am I?"

"Course not," the girls chimed in unison.

Ten minutes of reassurance later and Annabel practically jumped out of her skin when the door finally slid open. She was quick to abandon her seat and rush the boy standing there with the brightest of smiles playing about her mouth.

It took Cady a minute or so to recognise him as Misha Thistleby, a Hufflepuff boy in their year who took Transfiguration with them. He was tall and spindly with reddish brown hair and dark eyes that looked right through you, and, at that particular moment, wore a cheek-splitting grin as he greeted Annabel with a hug.

Lily and Cady exchanged confused looks.

"You know Misha, right?" Annabel said after planting a swift peck on the boy's lips. She tugged him down to sit beside her, instantly settling her head on his shoulder.

"Uh-huh." Cady waved and nodded.

"Hi," said Lily, quick to focus her attention on the gooey-smiling Annabel. "Since when was this a thing?" she asked. "I thought you liked-"

"Since the party," Annabel replied, clearing her throat to stop Lily from saying any more. "We clicked."

Cady did her best to suppress a snort. She hadn't known Annabel for long at all, but even she felt she could read a lie on her face easy as she could hold her wand. Something was most certainly amiss.

"Well, it's nice to see you, Misha," said Lily, the epitome of good manners. She tapped Cady lightly on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go find the trolley. I'm _dying _for a Cauldron Cake, and these two look like they could do with some alone time."

Misha laughed at that, nudging Annabel's knee with his own. "You don't have to go," he said, flashing Lily a kind smile. "Kit was going to come join us, too, I'm sure she'd like to meet you."

Kit was his twin sister, a Ravenclaw girl in Cady's Divination class who had a habit of daydreaming her way through classes and somehow still managing to come out on top. From the few times they had spoken, Cady decided she was quite fond of the girl. Lily, on the other hand, seemed to think differently.

"It's okay," she said. "I really am hungry. We'll be back soon, I just can't wait any longer or my stomach will start to growl. Come on, Cady."

"Right. Uh, bye guys!" Cady allowed herself to be tugged out into the corridor by Lily, watching in the periphery of her vision as Annabel leaned close to Misha to mutter things she couldn't quite overhear.

It wasn't until the girls had passed into the next carriage along that Lily harrumphed and said, "What was all that about?"

Cady shrugged. "Annie's gotten herself a boyfriend," she said. "I don't think there's much more explanation than that."

"You know what I mean." Lily rolled her eyes. "What happened to Remus? I thought by the time we got back to school they'd be together, especially since they were going to be some of the only students staying over Christmas. Then she turns up at the party, and now this! It's bizarre."

"Maybe something happened," Cady mused, taking on a thoughtful expression. She side-stepped to avoid a Slytherin second-year chasing after his wayward cat. "I thought there was something weird about Remus a while ago. You know when I got that DADA detention?"

Lily fidgeted uncomfortably, all colour fading from her cheeks. "I hope it doesn't have anything to do with that," she mumbled beneath her breath.

"To do with what?" Cady frowned. "Lil, do you know something I don't?"

"Not my place to say." Lily bit her lip and shot her friend an apologetic look. "Sorry, Cady."

"No, it's fine," Cady assured, despite the sadness that bubbled in her gut – it didn't feel good to be kept on the outside.

"Good." Lily nodded and started down the corridor, peering into compartments as she went. "Maybe we should ask the boys. They're best mates, so chances are they'll know if something's gone wrong."

Cady cleared her throat and stopped dead in her tracks. "Mind if I head back to join Annie and Misha?" she asked. "Keep an eye on them, just in case."

"Don't be ridiculous." Lily laughed. "You can't run away from all your problems, Cady, the quicker you face whatever it is you think is coming, the quicker things can get back to normal. Besides, as my friend you're forbidden to leave me alone with Potter. It's in the rules."

"There are rules?" Cady smiled and shook her head, admittedly a little relieved by Lily's general attitude. The prospect of getting to see James inadvertently make a fool of himself to try and win Lily's affections didn't hurt matters, either.

"Good." Lily grabbed her hand and pulled her through the throng of students gathering around the trolley, keeping a watchful eye out for any of the three Marauders on the train. It wasn't until they heard a loud 'bang!' followed by obscenities and laughter that the girls knew precisely where they were going.

Taking a turn into the very last compartment, Cady's eyes widened as she saw almost all of Peter's hair had been blown off by a blackened hat he held gingerly in his lap. James and Sirius were howling with laughter, so much so that they didn't notice the girls until Lily cleared her throat.

"That's a little dangerous, don't you think?" she said in her best prefect voice. "Especially in such an enclosed space."

Cady pressed her palm to her mouth to stop herself from laughing at the look of shock on Peter's face. "You're all mad," she said. "Trying to set fire to the train?"

James grinned at them. "It's a train full of _wizards. _If one of us can't manage a decent _aguamenti _by now, there's no point in any of us bothering to turn up this year."

"You make a solid point," Cady admitted, taking a seat beside Lily as she did the same. "Except in the case of first years, they really can't be expected to know how to do that."

"We did," said Sirius, smirking over at her. "Or me, at least."

"Lies, mate." James rolled his eyes. "You're getting yourself confused with me again."

Lily laughed and shook her head. "I seem to remember the both of you having trouble with Charms first year," she said. "Especially you, Black. Remember the levitation disaster?"

Sirius grumbled something inaudibly and folded his arms, resigning himself to a moment's silence. Cady found herself stuck staring at him just long enough to be caught – she was trying to figure out what had changed, because something certainly had. Merlin, she hoped it wasn't what she thought.

"Just seeing if there was any lasting damage," she said when Sirius stared back at her, questioning. Cady reached up to tap her nose. "Mrs. Potter did a good job fixing it."

James snickered. "Wasn't the first time," he said. "The best was the time we were trying to play quidditch in the back garden with dad. He was-"

"We came to ask you something," Lily interrupted briskly. She pushed her hair back behind her ears, turning to face James with a neutral expression. "Have you heard from Remus at all?"

The boys swapped wary looks.

"Why?" James asked.

"Just wondering is all," Lily said. "Since Annabel is back in our compartment snogging Misha Thistleby, there might be something up."

"That prat?" Sirius scoffed. "He wouldn't know the difference between a broomstick and a basilisk if you hit him over the head with them. What's she doing with him?"

"Jealous?" Cady asked before she could stop herself. She groaned and dropped her head back at her own stupidity, trying to catch herself by saying, "It looked like Remus was interested, from what I could see, and she definitely felt the same. You don't think they had a fight or something, do you?"

James shrugged his shoulders, shooting Sirius an unreadable glare. "If they have, Moony didn't say anything about it. Just sent us an owl to see if we were getting our work done and everything."

"Yeah," Peter said, a little late to pick up the slack. "He sent me one, too. Said he was going to help me out with my Charms when we got back."

"Right." Lily watched them each in turn for a long moment before she rose to her feet, understanding in her calm green eyes. "Well I guess we'll see you all at the feast," she said, pushing the compartment door open. "Do try not to cause too much trouble before we get there."

James watched her go with such admiration that even Cady in her confused state felt giddy from it – there was another change she just couldn't put her finger on. She shrugged it off for the time being, following Lily as she made a beeline back to the compartment where Annabel and the Thistleby twins would be waiting for them. As she made a stop to pick up a few Cauldron Cakes and Chocolate Frogs, she smiled weakly over at Cady.

"What was all that about?" Lily asked.

"All what?" Cady wrinkled her nose in puzzlement. "Are we still talking about Remus? Or Annabel? Or the fact Peter looks worse bald than he does usually?"

"None of the above," Lily replied, handing over a few coins and collecting her sweets. "I meant the blatant staring. On both parts, too."

Cady sighed, electing to play stupid rather than admit that something was amiss. "I didn't notice any staring, unless you count James at you. He gave you this really weird look once you'd left, Lil, like he'd seen the light for the very first time."

"He's been doing that for the last six years," Lily pointed out with a shake of her head. "I wasn't talking about that and you know it."

"For your sake and mine, I'm going to pretend we're not having this conversation," Cady replied, scowling at the floor beneath her feet. She clenched and unclenched her hands into fists by her sides to fight the uncomfortable feeling which settled over her. "Let's just get back to hearing all about the new love-birds. Never know, Annie might let slip what went down over Christmas."

"I only hope it's not what I think it is." Lily chewed on her lip. "Poor Remus."


	12. With a Chance of Fighting

The remainder of the train journey was an awkward affair. Kit Thistleby tried her hardest to befriend both Lily and Cady, but all three were repeatedly distracted by Annabel and Misha, who had thrown all concept of personal bubbles out the window. To say it was a scarring experience was an understatement.

"Come on, quick," Lily said, helping Cady to wrangle Roman back into his carrier. "I love Annie, don't get me wrong, but a carriage without so much face-sucking would be a blessing right now."

Kit, who was small, pretty, and slightly plump, opened the compartment door for the girls. "I couldn't agree more," she said in her high, sing-song voice. "There are some things a girl should never see her brother do. That was at least ten of them."

Cady laughed and followed the two of them as they abandoned the compartment before either Annabel or her new boyfriend had risen from their seats. "If it's any consolation, she isn't usually such a fan of PDAs," she said. "At least, not in the few months I've seen her. Lil?"

"This is completely new," Lily said, nodding. She held out a hand to assist Kit – the girl was more than a little clumsy – in stepping down from the train. "Her last boyfriend was in the middle of fifth year. Didn't see them do much more than hug when I was around, certainly haven't seen her make a show of it like that before."

"We'll have to have a word with her." Cady shuddered at the thought. "Girl to girl."

Kit held up her hand as if answering a question in class. "I'll talk to Misha!" she chirruped. "He always listens to me. Well, most of the time. Some of the time. Uh..."

Lily smiled kindly and gestured over to where the carriages were waiting. "We get it. Thanks for the offer, Kit, it would help a lot."

"I know." Kit grinned, flashing teeth held straight by muggle braces, and clambered up into the carriage. "If he gets embarrassed enough, it's likely he'll stop it. Especially if I let word slip to our mum – she'd hate to think he's getting all mushy in public. It's bad enough to her that neither of us made it into Slytherin."

"You're from a Slytherin family?" Lily raised a red brow, inquisitive. "I didn't know that."

"Only half," Kit explained. "My dad's a squib, but my mum's line is almost all Slytherins going back. She likes to tease us about not having made it into 'the family house.' I think I prefer Ravenclaw anyway, blue suits me better!"

"That's good to hear." Cady laughed quietly, glad to have found another person who she might come to call a friend. She'd gone back with minimal expectations after what had happened at the end of the last term, so Kit was a pleasant surprise. Misha probably would be, too, if Annabel was planning on keeping him around.

With only the addition of a few much younger Hufflepuff students, the carriage ride was split between amicable silence and light-hearted chatting that put Cady at ease. Thoughts of getting back into the swing of being just one face in the Hogwarts hundreds bothered her more than she'd care to say. What worried her more was how much she felt she'd changed on the inside in the short months since upping and moving her life back to the United Kingdom.

"We're here," Lily announced as the carriage rolled to a stop, waiting for nobody as she hopped down and smoothed out her robes. It was funny how quickly she could switch from ordinary to perfect prefect, ushering students along before Cady even had the time to process their arrival.

"Want me to wait for you?" Cady asked once she'd climbed down and moved over to where Lily was shooing along some third year boys. "It's no bother, and I'd rather stand out here than look like Billy-no-mates at the table."

Lily smiled and shook her head. "You get inside. I have a reason to be late, you don't. We both know after last term's stunt Gryffindor could do with retaining all the points it can. At this rate, we're going to lose to Hufflepuff again."

"I'm fine for being sneaky," Cady insisted. "I think I'm starting to figure out a few of the more discrete passageways, too, you know. It's the next best thing to devising an invisibility potion of some sort."

"Please, for all our sakes, _never _try to create one of those." Lily screwed up her face at the thought. "It'd be nice to avoid casualties. Unless-" a sudden smile twitched up the corners of her lips "-you're getting Richard to help you. He's quite good, I hear."

"Right," Cady grumbled. She'd forgotten about the Richard problem. "Maybe I will go inside. See you later, Lil."

Lily's laughter followed her all the way into the Entrance Hall.

When Cady finally made it through the crowds and took a seat at the Gryffindor table, she kept her head down to avoid meeting anyone's eyes. There were a few whispers around her, and it was more paranoia than any truth that led her to believe they were talking about her. It wasn't until she was joined by snickering Marauders – Remus included, though his grin didn't quite reach his eyes – that Cady's attention was drawn away from her own self-pitying thoughts.

"What have you done this time?" she asked flatly, looking to Remus as the most likely to be truthful. "Should I be worried?"

Remus only shrugged, leaving Peter to intervene. He was still missing a great deal of hair, but the boys had managed to grow some of it back for him. "My idea," he said, "no big deal."

James clapped him on the back with a hearty laugh. "Bloody funny, though. Those prats didn't know what hit them."

"And what did?" asked Lily as she took a seat to Peter's right. "I hope this doesn't have anything to do with the boys headed to the hospital with rabbit ears."

The boys only laughed harder at that, causing Lily to roll her eyes and Cady to revert back to silently observing. Annabel was the last to join their group, a stupid grin on her pretty mouth right up until she saw the last spare seat around was directly between Remus and Cady. When she finally took the space, she made sure to tilt her body more in Cady's direction, completely ignoring the questioning looks from those around her.

Remus coughed and said something about not feeling well, and Lily leapt up to offer to walk him to the hospital wing. She claimed it was her 'prefectly duties', though the look she exchanged with Cady told her it was far more than that. Cady nodded and wondered as she watched them depart the busy hall whether or not Lily could get to the bottom of whatever was up.

Annabel visibly relaxed with Remus out of the picture, shimmying along as soon as the space was available to do so. "How are you?" she asked Cady. "We didn't get much of a chance to talk since..."

"Since what?" Cady shook her head to subdue her sudden temper. She should've known better than to think anything could be secret. "Doesn't matter, I'm fine. And you?"

"I'm good." Annabel smiled a big, fake smile. It was almost as bad as the one she'd shared with Misha on the train. "Better than good, actually. Misha and I already set up a date this Sunday. He says there's talk of the Head Boy and Girl trying to set up some Valentine's ball, too, so that could be good for us."

Cady resisted the urge to roll her eyes, instead returning her friend's smile. If Lily was going to try questioning Remus, it was only fair she do the same with Annabel. "So about you and Misha..."

"What about us?" Annabel snapped, just as Cady had moments before. Only she didn't quite have the grace to drop it so soon. "I know what you're thinking, and I also know it's total rubbish. Misha is good for me, and nothing you say about Re-" She stopped herself short, clenching her jaw.

"I didn't say anything." Cady slumped her shoulders in defeat, trying to think her way around the situation as coolly and calmly as she could. "But it sounds like you want to, and that's fine. You can always talk to me, Annie."

Annabel's fingers curled into fists around the red tablecloth, knuckles turning white with the effort. "Is this the point where you try to guilt-trip me, Cady? 'Cause that's what it looks like is coming next."

"I'm not trying to do anything." Cady frowned. What was up with Annabel? Something major must have gone wrong to make her so angry, so defensive, when usually she was an infallibly nice person. Maybe, Cady thought, she wasn't the only one with internal issues. They could form a sharing circle and feel sorry for themselves about it together, a la loony bin. And pigs would fly in the Quidditch World Cup.

The Marauder boys were no help – aside from the occasional interested peek over at the squabbling girls, they kept to themselves. Most likely they were discussing the next prank, or trying to figure out for themselves what was up with Remus. They all definitely looked a little worried.

"I know how this goes," Annabel was saying, "you're going to claim I'm using Misha for whatever bitchy purposes you think I have in mind. Then that's when you start the grand inquisition in hopes that I'll break down and admit it all. Maybe we can all have a cry, and you'll patch things up for me so we can go back to discussing boys and painting our nails."

Cady cleared her throat, eyes flickering towards the entrance in hopes that Lily would return soon and help her evade the scene Annabel was starting to cause. She really wasn't in a good place to deal with her own confusion and guilt, let alone somebody else's. Friends were hard work.

"Look," Cady said. "Calm down, okay? I didn't say anything. Just asked how you were was all."

"Well I'm fine." Annabel's hands relaxed and fell into her lap, releasing the tablecloth. A good sign, if ever there was one. "Just as fine as you are," she added, accusatory in tone.

"Good." Cady breathed a sigh of relief, choosing not to address the last. She instead busied herself by reaching across the table for her goblet and wiping at an imaginary smudge on the rim. The gold felt cool to the touch – a stark contrast from her sweaty palms.

Annabel hummed and tapped her fingers against her knees. "Nothing to say to that one, huh?"

"Not at all."

"Funny." Annabel shook her head. "You're willing to accuse me of all sorts just so that we don't have to talk about you. Don't you find that a little bit hypocritical?"

"Annie," Cady said, her eyes narrowing to annoyed slits. "Are you trying to start something with me? If so, just say. I'd like to know what it is I've done to deserve it."

Annabel's brows knitted together into an angry line and she said, "My problem is that we're all trying to tread light around you, be nice like Lily wants us all to, and then you go doing stupid stuff. Just because you're a little bit sad, doesn't mean I'm not going to call you out on being a cow."

She turned in her seat to get a better look at her speechless room-mate, waiting to see if she'd be interrupted. When the coast was clear, she continued, "I've nothing against you or anything, just what you're doing. Push everyone away because you want the attention, then try to make out like it's someone else in the wrong."

Cady bit her lip against the urge to speak up. She wouldn't say a word, not yet, because the truth in what Annabel was saying made her head hurt. Was she really doing all that? Calling Annabel out on something that was probably in her head just to make herself feel better?

The boys had quietened and were staring at them like they'd turned into giant squid, caught between amusement and some emotion Cady couldn't quite read. Both James and Sirius looked like they were going to say something on several occasions, but in the end they each stopped each other and simply waited to see what was coming next.

It was perhaps the first time they'd all been completely silent during one of the professors' pre-dinner speeches.

When Lily returned, tension in their group was thick enough that it could be carved with a knife and served as Sunday roast. Taking a seat in the suddenly vast space between Cady and Annabel, the redhead looked from one face to another, befuddled. "What happened here?"

"Nothing," said Annabel, reaching for a helping of chicken stew. "Just talking is all."

"Mm." Cady nodded her agreement, taking one look at the food and turning her nose up at it. "I don't feel so good," she said and stood, thankful for Remus' earlier escape route paving the way for her own. "Must be something going around. I'm going to have an early night – see you all in the morning."

Lily was about to open her mouth to protest, but at a nudge from one of the boys under the table she let it slide. There was a stiff chorus of 'goodnight', Annabel's only mouthed, before Cady waved and left. She was glad to make it to Gryffindor Tower without being stopped, and from there ascended the stairs to the girl's dormitories as quickly as her feet would let her.

Curling up in her soft bed, Cady couldn't help but think what an idiot she'd been.


	13. With a Chance of Enlightenment

Cady sat bolt upright, her heart beating fast from residual fear. Not for the first time that week she had been plagued by dreams she just couldn't understand. They were always so dark, populated only with figures hooded and cloaked in black and silver – she was sure she hadn't seen them before, but they were just too real to be imagined.

"Calm down," she murmured, pressing her own cold hands to her forehead. It took four long blinks and a pinch to her upper arm before she was absolutely certain she was awake. Cady groaned and squinted to get a better look at her surroundings.

She was still in her dorm, but the inky black view from their window told her it had to be somewhere too late in the night to even contemplate waking. But if that was so, where were Lily and Annabel? Both their beds were empty, made just as neatly as they had been when Cady had first seen them, and by the foot of Annabel's was a vacant space where her trunk had been.

Cady reached out for her wand, illuminating the tip so that she could get a better look around. Lily's things were still there, and Roman the cat was comfortably sleeping under the window, but all traces of Annabel had disappeared. There wasn't even the usual scent of hairspray and coconut body lotion that stuck like glue to anything she'd touched.

Biting her lip, Cady made her way to the door, and then began a slow descent down the stairs. If she was lucky, the girls would be sat in the common room. Maybe, she thought hopefully, they had stayed away to let her get some sleep. It didn't explain the miraculously disappearing property but it was better than nothing.

Sure enough, when she was three steps from the bottom, Cady heard voices. She could make out Lily's first of all, though the words evaded her until she crept a little closer to the common room doors.

"... said something about 'monster'," Lily was saying. "I think from the way she was acting, maybe Annabel mentioned it to him after she figured out, you know... She moved all her stuff into the fifth years' dorm earlier, that says guilt to me."

"Well whatever she did, he's in bad shape," said James. "Haven't seen him this moody since-"

"Fourth year," Sirius cut in, "when he was having all those nightmares."

Cady frowned and placed her hand gently on the door, nudging it open as far as she dared without revealing herself to them. Eavesdropping might not have been the most respectful choice just then, but she felt her interest warranted just a little more information. Besides, they'd never know.

Through the crack she could see the three of them in arm chairs close to the fire, Lily sitting opposite the boys and worrying away at something in her lap. Even in the dim lighting it was clear that none were particularly happy just then.

"We knew there was something up," Lily said. "Especially when she started acting strangely on the train. Even from the way she was at the party – and Cady mentioned something about another night, too, ages ago. Should we have noticed something sooner? Said something to him? A warning, maybe?"

James shook his head. "There's no way we could have guessed. We're his mates, we aren't Seers or anything like that."

"How d'you think she even found out?" Sirius asked, looking over at Lily. "I didn't even know you knew until this morning."

"I didn't say anything, if that's what you're getting at," Lily replied coolly, folding her arms. "Think whatever you want about me, Black, but you should know I don't spread rumours behind people's backs. I know how to keep my mouth shut."

"Yeah, you do." James was giving her that look again, the one like he'd found his own golden ticket. He stopped the second he seemed to realise, shaking his head vigorously. "Nobody's accusing anybody. The important thing here is making sure Moony's okay and she doesn't say anything else to him."

"Or any other guilty parties." Sirius snorted. "She was out of order earlier."

Cady swallowed back her reluctance and pushed the door open enough that she could slip out into the open. She paid no heed to the questioning looks she was getting right up until she'd taken a seat on the floor by Lily's chair, suddenly glad her pyjamas were nothing more embarrassing than pink cotton. "Ten galleons says I know who we're talking about."

"Doesn't take a Ravenclaw to figure it out," said Sirius.

"You're right." Cady shrugged. "But it seems like it takes one to notice maybe Annabel wasn't talking total rubbish. She was probably just stressed, I think we all are. It's a busy time right now."

Lily patted her lightly on the shoulder. "From what I've heard, it was more than a stress-induced outburst. You didn't deserve that, Cady, no matter what you're thinking."

"I'm just saying there might be some truth to it. Don't count her out."

"There's a difference between being honest and being a git," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "You don't just have a go at your mates for no reason like that."

James cleared his throat, taking it upon himself to be the voice of calm all the sudden. Lily appeared almost impressed by the show of maturity.

"Right," he said. "No point starting another argument on the first day back. It'll only cost us more house points if someone else gets hexed."

"Hexed?" Cady quirked an inquisitive brow. "Who hexed Annabel?"

She had automatically looked Sirius' way, judging him to be the most hot-headed of the three, and was surprised when Lily flushed and mumbled, "It was only a Bat Bogey, nothing lasting."

"It was a good one," James said, causing Lily's cheeks to darken from pink to scarlet in seconds.

Cady couldn't help the smile that tugged on her lips in reaction to the news – Lily's protective side was something to be admired by all. She was a marvel with her wand when she needed to be.

"I have a question," Cady said, breaking through a few minutes' praise of Lily's hexing skills. "Since it seems like I'm the only one in the dark now – what happened over Christmas? With Annabel and Remus, I mean. I gather that there must have been something less than pleasant said, but why? They were getting on so well just before we left."

Lengthy looks were exchanged between the boys and Lily, each taking care to avoid meeting Cady's eyes. James was about to speak up when another much quieter voice cut over the crackling of the fire.

"She may as well know," said Remus, a much more successful eavesdropper than Cady had been. He padded almost silently towards them in baggy pyjamas that looked a little worse for wear, dark circles beneath his kind eyes. The expression he wore was so resigned, so fed-up, it was painful to see. "Find out if anyone else has a problem with me, then I can-"

"You don't have to tell anybody anything," Lily replied, flashing a small smile in greeting. "We're all in charge of our own secrets, nobody is going to hold it against you if you choose to keep yours."

"She's right." Sirius said, nodding in unison with James. He pointed over at the last vacant chair, which Remus plopped into in a gesture far too old and haggard for a boy of seventeen.

Cady coughed awkwardly into the back of her hand to suppress the urge to push the matter. Instead, she channelled her age-old calm and said, "You don't have to tell me, I was just being nosy. Didn't mean to pry."

"You figured it out," Remus said, turning to Lily. He then inclined his head towards James and Sirius, who had begun to talk quietly with one another. "So did they, and An-" He cleared his throat. "Never mind. My point is that it's hardly a secret any more."

Lily's expression softened and she busied herself with smoothing out her hair over her shoulders. "It was a lucky guess."

Remus laughed, switching for a moment to the fun-loving boy who often dabbled in pranks with his friends. "We both know it was more than that. You're a smart girl, I didn't stand a chance."

"Not _that _smart."

"Bollocks," said James, folding his arms. "You're always getting Os in exams, Lil, no point being shy about it."

"Not all of us are as arrogant as you are, Potter," Lily retorted. "Bear that in mind."

"And we're not all as modest as you."

"Maybe you should try it," Lily said. "Go a week without bragging and you'll see the benefits."

James rolled his eyes good-naturedly, leaning forward in his seat and grinning at the object of his affections. "I don't brag that much."

"Do so." Lily smiled mischievously. "I'm willing to bet you couldn't go a week without."

"Deal, how much are we-"

"And," she said, narrowing her eyes, "for fun, I think we should count all forms of showing off under the same category. That means no more of that ridiculous snitch of yours, too."

James groaned and beside him Sirius laughed, clapping his friend on the back. "He's in. What're the stakes?"

"If I win, no more pestering me to go out with you for another year," Lily said, watching James closely for his reaction. Her cheeks flushed lightly and she brought her pale hands up to cover them. "And if you win, I'll go on a date with you."

"Deal!" James nearly leapt out of his seat to shake her hand and seal it. His hazel eyes were bright with enthusiasm behind his wire-framed glasses. "And the date is my choice, right?"

Lily sighed and nodded, rising to her feet before she could get herself in any more trouble. She didn't quite manage to hide her smile. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Potter, there's a week to go before you can even consider it."

Cady chewed on her lip to quiet her own laugh, glad for the distraction from wondering what was wrong with Remus. "You're going to bed?" she asked.

"I have early morning patrolling tomorrow," Lily explained, nodding. As she walked past them, she patted Remus once on the shoulder. "Goodnight everybody."

There was a chorus of 'goodnight' and soon enough Cady was left alone with three quarters of the Marauders. James hadn't stopped smiling. "This is exactly the opportunity I needed," he said. "She won't know what hit her."

"Just don't be a prat about it," Remus said. "Even if you manage to take her out, it doesn't mean she's going to fall head over heels for you."

"I got it." James reached up and messed his dark hair until it stood on end. "I know what I'm doing."

"That's what you said last year," Remus said.

Sirius barked a laugh. "And the one before."

"And the one before that, and the-"

"I get it, thanks for the vote of confidence." James rolled his eyes. "You're all just jealous."

Cady smiled, beginning to feel a great deal more at ease with their amicable teasing. She had moved to take Lily's vacant seat, crossing her legs and holding her hands out towards the heat of the fire. "I think if I asked nicely enough Lily would date me, no bets needed."

"Yeah, well." James stuck his tongue out for lack of a clever retort, earning himself an elbow to the gut from Sirius. The two of them were quick to break into a playful sparring which soon escalated to a common-room wide adventure – Sirius had James cornered with a wand to his chest by the time Remus chose to speak up.

"You really haven't guessed?" he asked, speaking barely above a whisper as he shuffled his chair a little closer to Cady.

"I can be slow on the uptake. Besides that, I've only been here a few months." Cady shrugged and picked at a fraying thread on her pyjama bottoms. Not looking him in the eye made it easier to hide her disappointment at being excluded from the big secret. "But honestly, you don't have to tell me a thing you aren't comfortable with. It doesn't matter to me."

Remus let out a long breath. "I just think that given the recent, uh, occurrence, it's important those around me are fully understanding."

"Well, it's totally your choice," Cady assured. "I wouldn't the world knowing my secrets."

He nodded in understanding and pointed towards the common room's sole window, just past where James and Sirius were heavily involved in a muggle-style wrestling match. The night was speckled with stars and half a silver moon, just enough light to see by for the average wanderer of the night.

Cady craned her neck to try and see if she was missing something, her face contorted into a mask of confusion. There was a thought at the back of her head, the barest hint of knowing, but she couldn't bring herself to access that. "It's pretty, huh?"

"Not quite what I was getting at," Remus said with a solemn shake of his head. "Just think about it a moment. About me."

She leaned back in her chair and stared out that window for the longest time – it was a lot easier to ignore the rowdy noise in the background than Cady had originally thought. Considering all she knew about Remus was a difficult thing; he was a nice boy, kind and understanding, if a little strange at times. He could be fine for weeks, disappear for a while and suddenly reappear one day as haggard as if he'd been fighting off a lifelong illness. Cady had seen it happen precisely four times. One for every month.

"Oh." Cady's eyes locked on the moon, understanding all the sudden. It was a wonder she hadn't put two and two together sooner – before she'd made the transfer to Hogwarts, she had been taking an elective specifically for the study of nocturnal beasts. Cady made a mental note to study harder and forget less, otherwise she knew she'd spend the remainder of her years working in a muggle supermarket.

Remus was watching her closely, curiously. "Oh?"

"Oh." Cady nodded, trying to think of what more she could say. She drummed her fingers against her knee to fill their silent bubble with something other than the buzz of her thoughts.

Annabel's behaviour was starting to make sense to her when she reconsidered what she'd heard eavesdropping. She must have figured out Remus' condition on her own, had something less-than-friendly to say about it, and now she felt guilty. That guilt in turn was being taken out on the closest and easiest target – Cady herself – because Annabel lacked the balls to apologise or admit she'd been wrong. If she even thought that way.

"I think I get it," Cady said.

"And?" Remus' eyes were cast downward and all colour had drained from his already pale face.

"Annabel was a jerk."


	14. With a Chance of Reconciliation

Remus seemed mildly surprised by that, his brows rising a centimetre or two. "That's all you've got to say?" he asked, quiet and gentle as if afraid. "I mean, uh-"

"That's it." Cady nodded. It was a relief to finally know, and it checked one more thing off her to-do list. "The way I see it, it's none of my business to think any differently of you."

"But now you know I'm dangerous."

Cady chuckled and pointed over to where James and Sirius had finished their wrestling and were making a point of not looking back to the two by the fire – at least they had some understanding of the need for privacy. "I'm more scared of them than I am of you, especially since James' thing with all those lilies. I'd be lying if I said I don't care, but that's all. Nothing changes."

"Thank you." Remus nodded curtly.

"Not a problem." Cady shrugged, fidgeting in her seat as the time in others' company was beginning to get to her. She found she could manage short periods of time with no trouble, but longer than an hour or two of having to be attentive in conversation wore down on her nerves. Aislin's attic would have been a blessing, but she couldn't up an disappear after such a revelation. That would be rude.

Remus had settled back into his chair and was watching the fire intently. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to," he said. "It's late, you're probably getting tired."

"It's okay, I'm not-" Cady stopped herself when she realised he was making her excuses for her. Whatever Annabel might have thought, Cady was sure Remus was as far from a monster as they came. She flashed a weak smile and swung her legs off the end of the chair. "Thanks for understanding."

"Same to you." Remus nodded and didn't say another word as Cady quietly slipped out of the common room.

With the door closed behind her, she leaned against it and squeezed her eyes shut, thinking things through. Remus was a werewolf; Annabel was nasty; and Cady was a killer by proxy. Gryffindor certainly had its work cut out for it.

She laughed a bitter laugh once free of prying eyes, able to take the minute needed to let out all the horrid feelings which swelled in her gut. The most prevalent of them was the guilt that came with the realisation she just couldn't mourn – for a child to understand that they didn't feel a thing for their father was a major cause for concern. Even the brief flicker of anger at the train station, and then the Potters' party, had disappeared almost completely. Cady thought there _had _to be something wrong.

It was only knowing that Remus had problems far bigger than her own that kept Cady thinking clearly just then. She was able to break the shell of self-pity just long enough to make the decision to owl her mother. If anyone would know what she was going through, it would be the woman who hated her husband enough to flee the country to lose him.

Cady trudged up the stairs and into the dormitory quietly, though her efforts were in vain as Lily was perfectly awake and waiting for her. "Did he tell you?" she asked. "Remus, I mean."

"Kinda." Cady nodded. "He didn't exactly say, just made a connection for me."

"You didn't say anything to him, did you?"

"I didn't insult him, Lily," Cady said. "I'm shocked, but I'm not stupid. It's not like it's under his control at all, so who am I to judge?"

"I agree." Lily nodded. "That's why I don't understand what Annabel did. From what I heard, they were getting along just fine right up until they were doing some Defence Against the Dark Arts homework together, then Annabel brought it up. Remus wouldn't say anything more than they got in some big fight, and she said some nasty things about his condition."

"Lily." Cady held up a hand to stop her. "I really don't think we should be talking behind people's backs. Much as Annabel might have done something awful, she's still sort of our friend, right? Or at least she was, so that deserves a little courtesy."

"I'd be more courteous if she didn't take out her own prejudices on other people," Lily grumbled defensively, the same way she would when she caught people speaking badly about her ex-friend, Severus Snape. "She _did _cross a line."

"I understand," Cady said. "But I just don't want to talk about it any more." She paused a moment, shuffling her feet awkwardly. "Have you heard anything from my mum recently? I know she talked to you after..."

Lily began to shake her head, but stopped herself so the action looked nothing more than a strange spasm. "I got a letter two days ago through muggle post, to ask if I'd look out for you. I think she's really worried about you."

"She's my mum," Cady said. "She's supposed to worry, just like I'm supposed to worry about her. I was being stupid trying to ignore her."

"Nobody would blame you," Lily said. "You're allowed to choose to grieve however you want to."

"That's just it, Lil, I don't think I _am_ grieving." Cady sighed in relief – it felt so good to say it out loud, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She felt _free. _"I just, uh, I need to know if she's okay. I think talking to her would help."

"You're not...?" Lily appeared worried but dropped it and shook her head. She fished through her trunk for parchment and a quill, which she held out to Cady. "Here, write her a letter. I'll send it when I go out on duty in the morning, that way it'll get to her quicker."

Cady smiled her thanks and took a seat on the edge of her bed. "I owe you one."

"Don't worry about it." Lily waved her off and slipped under the covers on her own bed. "Goodnight, Cady."

* * *

Putting quill to parchment was a thousand times more difficult than Cady had imagined it would be. There were just so many things she wanted to say, and yet none of them would come out right. She'd scribbled and ink-blotted her way through half the page before, finally, she managed to compose something remotely acceptable. Jumbled or not – Cady was proud.

_Dear Mum,_

_I know it's been a while since I've written to you but... God, this sounds stupid already, but bear with me. I just need to know how you're doing. How's the new man? Does that weird old lady who digs in our bins still come around? Have you cried over dad? Can you come back for summer? Or can I come visit? _

_Sorry._

_Things here have been hectic. I've got these great friends and everything – I know you've been talking to Lily, but there are more than just the one. The people here seem to like me a lot more than they used to, I think it's easier to talk to people when you don't stick out as much. It's like everyone here is accepted no matter what. There's even the one boy with his own 'special problems', and not in the way you'd think. It's brilliant. I'm brilliant._

_When I first heard the news, I thought I was sad. I wanted to be sad like I should – 'cause he's my dad and all, but now I'm not so sure. It's like being a balloon. I feel empty, like floating away and disappearing for a few years, but I know there's something there. It's just hard to figure out what that is. Please tell me you understand, mum, I need to hear it._

_Roman's gotten a lot fatter in the few months we've been gone. Almost all he does now is sleep on somebody's bed, or go out and stare at the giant squid when it shows up in the lake. I think it's because he's getting old – or he's just jealous because he's not the only cat in the castle. We'll have to think about getting him a friend._

_I was angry for a little while, especially at this one boy when he tried to bug me. He's cool, but it's not like when you're a kid and you pick on somebody to show you like them. I broke his nose and I think it's dad's fault. Lucky we had magic to fix it._

_Sorry._

_That's all I can say, mum. Just get back to me soon – I think we need to talk for real again. It's stupid, but I miss hearing you sing out of tune in the mornings, or the way you always took us to those obscure, artsy restaurants because you thought they were 'chic.'_

_Just talk to me._

_Lots of love,_

_Cady. x_

Cady sighed in content. She felt better already for venting her incoherent thoughts to the mother she was starting to realised she missed – even if the woman had gone behind her back to tell Lily to keep some kind of watch over her.

As she dropped the letter on Lily's bedside table, quiet so as not to wake the sleeping witch, Cady smiled at nothing in particular. Her sleep after that was blessedly dreamless.

* * *

Three times in the following week Cady exchanged letters with her mum, who had purchased a swift young owl to make it easier on the two of them to stay in touch. With every word she read or wrote, the girl felt even closer to normal, like sharing was some miracle cure. She even found herself enjoying James Potter's attempts to be humble and somehow win Lily's heart at the same time.

He was only six hours away from winning the bet when his friends started trying to tease him into losing. Sirius was the worst – he brought a group of pretty seventh year girls including the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain to sit with them under a tree by the lake, egged on by Peter all the while.

Lily, Cady, and Remus were sitting a few feet away with books splayed around them as they tried both to watch the amusing display and finish some Charms homework that was due first thing the next day.

Annabel hadn't said a word to any of them since the incident at the feast.

Lily peered over her copy of Extreme Incantations, a frown tugging down the corners of her mouth. "He's really going to manage it, isn't he?"

"Maybe." Remus put down his roll of parchment once he was sure the ink wouldn't smudge. "But there's still plenty of time for him to mess up. It's anyone's game."

Cady nodded in agreement. "Looks like Black is helping your cause, too. See what he's got in his hand?"

Sirius had pulled from his pocket James' lucky snitch, a sly smirk on his face. While he wanted the best for his friend – and James finally getting his chance with Lily would help to shut him up about her – it was far too fun an opportunity to pass up. It helped, too, that he had more of an excuse than ever to try and impress already swooning girls.

"See this, Mary," he said, holding the winged ball out towards the pretty Ravenclaw girl. "I caught this in my first match. Didn't even matter that I was only playing Beater, Prongs here was having a rough day so I picked up the slack."

Mary laughed and rolled her eyes, clearly disbelieving. James, on the other hand, looked fit to burst. He was far too proud of his quidditch abilities for his own good, and it showed. "Oi, mate," he said, speaking slow to give himself the time to avoid accidental bragging. "When was this, then?"

"Yeah, when was it?" Peter echoed, looking upon his friends in awe.

Sirius draped an arm around Mary's shoulders and pulled her closer to him. He leaned in and whispered something in her ear that sent a pink flush to her cheeks, and a flurry of giggles spilling from her mouth. James narrowed his eyes and pulled out a fistful of damp grass, tossing it in Sirius' direction.

Lily had set her book down, grinning triumphantly. "I remember that, too," she teased, glad of the opportunity to save herself. "It was two years ago, right? In that game that won us the Cup against Hufflepuff."

"That's bollo-" James clamped his mouth shut before he could say another word, folding his arms to stop himself picking the ground around him clean. He focused on a spot in the distance, electing to ignore the taunting of his friends.

"I wish I was here to see it," Cady said. "It'd be quite something to balance batting bludgers with one hand and catching the snitch with the other. Who knew Seekers were so obsolete, we've all been playing the game wrong for years."

Sirius snorted a laugh. "That's the thing, most Seekers can handle themselves on the pitch. Our James, though, he's a bit..." He pulled a stupid face and made a fumbled attempt to catch the snitch which he'd let go as he spoke. Sirius missed, but Mary – Chaser on her own team – was able to reach out and pluck it from the air before it buzzed off.

"Maybe you should transfer onto our team instead," Sirius said, nudging Mary with his elbow. "We could be so much better for you than Ravenclaw. You people haven't won in _years._"

"We won our last game," said Mary.

"They beat us once last year, too," added one of the seventh years, a fellow Gryffindor whose name Cady couldn't remember. She thought it might have started with a 'P'.

"So maybe it's you we should get rid of, Pads, what with those memory problems of yours," James said, grinning wide. "We have one decent Beater, we can find another one to replace you pretty quick. Lily could join us."

Lily turned scarlet and shook her head adamantly. "I don't fly. No way, no how."

"I could give you-" James shook his head and fell silent after Remus gave him a reproachful look. He groaned and settled for watching Sirius flirt with Mary, a sour expression on his face.

Cady had just turned her attention back to her half-finished essay – more to stop herself inadvertently staring at a certain somebody than anything – when Lily tapped her shoulder. She looked up, arching a dark brow in question. "You need help?"

"No." Lily shook her head. "But maybe you do."

"I think I got it, thanks." Cady glanced back down at her work, proud to admit her coherency when explaining charms and potential hazards was increasing greatly. She'd vowed to put in at least an hour an evening to study after neglecting to figure out Remus' condition on her own as the rest of her friends had. No way was she going to be left behind academically.

"Not what I meant." Lily laughed quietly. "I was thinking something a little more social."

"Getting this work done was your idea, Lil. I'm just about done – give me another twenty minutes and I'm all yours. Actually, make that thirty. I think proof-reading would be good for me on this one."

"Hmm." Lily shook her head again, red hair quick to catch in the light wind and flicker like flames around her pale face. "You can always finish it later. When we're inside and there's a proper table to write on."

"You're saying it's illegible?" Cady groaned and dropped her quill in the grass. "This is why there should be a 'turn my lap into a desk' spell. Remember to invent one someday, okay?"

Remus, who had been listening idly, said, "You could have used a book to lean on. It's a lot sturdier."

"Well, I wasn't thinking." Cady huffed. "This'll do. It's not like they can deduct points for wobbly handwriting – I've seen Peter's."

"Huh?" Peter looked over towards the girls when he heard his name. "Did I do something?"

"Nah. We're just talking."

"About me?" He looked positively enchanted by the thought, as though even words uttered behind his back helped nudge him towards the popularity of the boys he clung to. Peter grinned at them and nodded. "Talk away."

Lily flashed him a polite smile and Cady gave a brief thumbs up before the girls turned to face each other in almost perfect sync.

"If he manages the next few hours," Lily said, hooking her hands together in a pleading motion. "Promise me something."

"What's that?" Cady asked, "I don't think I could convince him to let you out of the deal, sorry."

"Not that."

"Then what?"

Lily smiled sheepishly and lowered her voice so as not to be overheard. "You've got to tag along somehow."

Cady furrowed her brows in puzzlement. "It's a date. That tends to mean just two people."

"Then double it. Bring somebody else along, anything." There was something more in Lily's eyes than just pleading, a mischievous glint that wouldn't have been out of place in the Marauders' pranking inner circle. "Please, Cady. _Please_?"

"It's not up to me," Cady said. "And somehow I doubt James will be up for sharing you."

"Just say you'll think about it?"

"Fine. Let's just hope he slips up."

"Amen to that."


	15. With a Chance of Succeeding

** AN: Hugely sorry I haven't updated lately, my laptop has been all broken and such, but I'm back now! I shall also apologise in advance if my writing has gotten any crappier since I've been away - it takes a while to get back into the swing of things. But a massive thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited, or followed! You all are my many muses. **

* * *

At 11.56PM, it was official. James Potter had managed a week without boasting, bragging, or trying to impress a single soul, and Lily was livid. She'd sat by until the very last second in the hopes that any one of them would be able to make him slip up, but he'd spent the final hour of their bet in complete and utter silence. Just to be sure, he'd claimed afterwards, though he knew he'd manage it all along.

Lily had stalked off to bed shortly after that, and Cady had chosen to follow and make sure everything was okay.

"It's only one date," Cady said. "You'll be fine. It's not like he can do anything bad in the couple of hours he'll have you."

"You underestimate the power of James Potter. He'll come up with something insane, I can tell already," Lily replied. She brought her hands up to cover her face. "Let's just hope he doesn't decide to hold out for that wretched Valentine's Ball."

"I don't think he'll be able to save it until February. You should be safe."

"But he just went a week without using at least half his personality," Lily said. Cady had to reach out to redirect her friend when she was about to sit on the cat who slept soundly on her bed. They wound up in Annabel's vacant spot, with Lily doing all she could to physically hide away from her impending alone time with James.

"I don't know why I even agreed to it in the first place," she mumbled from behind her hands and the pillow she'd dropped head-first onto. "It was a stupid idea."

Cady laughed. "It was a good idea. We got to experience a week with a little bit less arrogance, wasn't it worth it?"

Lily shrugged her shoulders and chose not to answer.

"Don't worry about it. The less you think about it, the better you'll feel," Cady said, careful to avoid broaching the subject of her tagging along. While she counted both as friends, a double date with James and Lily wasn't such an appealing idea. There was a sickening twinge in her gut that said if she was dragged along, there would be much more to it than acting a chaperone – she didn't even want to think about who she'd be paired with, let alone address the uneasy feeling that she already knew. That was just too much.

Lily rolled over onto her back after another five minutes of grumbling into Annabel's pillow, glaring up at the stone ceiling. "I'm screwed."

* * *

By the time Wednesday morning's Potions lesson came around, James and Lily were both missing from the group waiting by the door. Nobody knew where they were, but as they were called in and Cady offered a bumbled lie in explanation, the professor only waved her off and said he was made aware of the issue by Dumbledore himself.

"You don't think they're in trouble, do you?" Cady asked Remus, lingering by the table he and Sirius were going to share. "Lily hasn't really done anything, but if-"

Remus held up a hand to cut her off, shaking his head. "If it was trouble, we all know who would be with Prongs right now." He shot a sidelong glance at Sirius, who had started a bickering war with a Slytherin boy.

"True." Cady nodded. "Whatever it is, it's gotta be important to take Lily out of class. She'll be furious if she misses anything. I'll have to take notes."

"I'll do it," Remus offered kindly, "my handwriting is better, and-"

"I get it, I get it." Cady wrinkled her nose in annoyance. "Not my strong suit."

With a brief wave, she scurried off to where Richard was beckoning her. The two hadn't exactly spoken since the Christmas holidays – Cady had swapped to sit with Lily a few times in order to avoid the conversation – but oddly enough he was amicable from the off.

"Hey," Richard murmured, just quiet enough to avoid Slughorn's notice. His lips twitched into a tiny smile as he shifted to better face his partner. "How's everything going? I heard about..."

Cady's eyes narrowed and she balled her hands into the thick fabric of her robes to keep from clawing out. "Fine," she snapped. It was another minute or so of Richard's patiently watching before could say another word. "I'd rather not talk about it."

Richard muttered something under his breath that she couldn't quite catch, turning to the correct page in his Potions book. _'Amortentia' _was written in neat cursive, a scribbled explanation in Richard's own handwriting just beside the title – '_love potion'. _He laughed to ease a little of the tension. "This one should be interesting."

"You think so?"

"Yeah." He grinned. "Some of the girls in the year above said when they did it, everyone was walking around sniffing each other."

"That's just weird," Cady said, "and dangerous. Any one of us could be lead on by this stuff."

"That's why we don't take it out of the room." Richard shrugged. "And from the looks of this-" he drew his finger down the instructions list "- it's a pretty tough one, too. I don't think there are going to be many successes."

Cady took a second to regather her calm, to try and shove aside the dark thoughts that ran rampant in her mind, and cracked a grin. "I should probably sit this one out. For safety reasons."

"Nah." Richard returned her smile. "It's always worth a shot – you never know until you try. Besides, my brain's still up for assisting, if you want."

"If you promise not to poison me, I'm okay with teamwork."

"Good, because it's your turn to prepare the ingredients."

"Yes, boss."

* * *

It felt like an age had passed before they'd made their way through the complex instructions, Cady and Richard both finishing with a surprisingly well formed potion. It was the first time since the year's start that the two had managed to avoid any major disasters – and Cady was glad the same couldn't be said of everyone.

Sirius, a few rows back, had been overzealous and wound up with something thick and purplish, though Remus beside him had succeeded. Almost half the class ended up with the correct pearl-sheen potion, and soon the room was filled with steam which danced towards the ceiling. Students were leaning over their cauldrons and inhaling deeply, some of the less successful crowding around their friends.

"What's it to you?" Richard asked casually, waving his hand six inches above his cauldron. His brows were furrowed and nose a little wrinkled as he took a step back.

Cady shrugged, having to take another deep breath to figure it out. She could smell something fruity – it reminded her somewhat of her mother's shampoo – and there was definitely a note of grass and mud on the Quidditch pitch, and something more... something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"It's like being at the park," she said, pink-cheeked. "Like being little and running around through dog walkers, and swing sets, and being chased by my ma when she laughs."

"Huh." Richard fiddled with his quill, flicking ink blots at the table. "I don't think I smell anything. It's just like it was when we came in."

Cady covered her own confusion with a failed attempt at humour, jabbing him lightly with her elbow. "Maybe you're in love with the Potions classroom. Some people have a thing for dungeons, it's kinda..."

"Kinky," Sirius finished, having been eavesdropping a few feet away. He wore a wolfish grin and nodded towards the cauldrons. "Shame Prongs and Lily weren't here, isn't it?"

Richard stepped aside, mumbling to himself all the while, and Cady breathed a sigh. "How so?" she asked, tearing her eyes away from Richard.

"They could've smelled each other in this stuff," Sirius said. "Save a lot of time and effort."

"True, but there's still that owed date, isn't there? Things might be moving along quicker than we think." Cady dropped her Potions book back into her bag, taking one last look at her Amortentia. She almost wanted to keep a little just to prove she had made it – an advanced potion would be sure to impress her mother. It could have other uses, too...

Cady tore herself away from that disturbing line of thought when she felt a quick pinch on her arm. Lily and James, it seemed, had returned from their meeting with Dumbledore, and judging by the smile on Lily's face it had been a success.

"Guess what!" Lily said, shifting her weight from side to side.

"Dumbledore heard about the bet and called off your obligation to James?" Cady quirked a brow and took a moment to see where James stood, grinning from ear to ear as he relayed something to Remus and Sirius. The two of them looked in a state of amused disbelief before Sirius began howling with laughter.

Lily chuckled and shook her head, grabbing Cady by the arm and pulling her into a kind of circling happy dance. It was by far the most excited she'd ever seen the redhead – whether she should have been alarmed or amused, Cady couldn't quite tell.

"It's better than that," Lily said, the lowered her voice to almost a whisper. "Next year is our last, the really big one, so it's important that we make it count. Leave our mark and all," she babbled, nothing like her ordinarily composed self. "Dumbledore wanted to know whether or not I'd be interested in the Head Girl position. Of course, nothing is set in stone and I won't know for sure until just before we come back, but he said he wanted to tell us because-"

"Wait." Cady frowned. "You said 'us'. Now, I don't mean any offence or anything, but wouldn't choosing James be a little..."

Lily pursed her lips. "I'm sure Dumbledore has a reason for his choices," she said, defensive all the sudden. "He wouldn't pick at random. Potter has his merits, he's not _all _bad."

"I heard that!" James' grin brightened tenfold as the class was ushered away by their exasperated professor. The Marauders fell into step just behind Lily and Cady since they all shared their next class – Charms.

Lily's cheeks had reddened and she made a point of keeping silent; she wasn't the only one, though James' silence looked to be prompted by a stern look from Remus. Cady spoke up when no-one else would, disturbed enough by snippets of passing student's conversation to break through her own reluctance. "Isn't there a Hogsmeade visit this weekend?"

"Yeah," Sirius said. "We're all going to Zonko's, right Prongs?"

"Actually," James cleared his throat. "I have other plans."

Cady heard a quiet sigh from where Lily was scurrying ahead of her and made quick time of catching up. "You fixed the date?" she asked, just loud enough for her friend to hear. "For this weekend?"

"The sooner, the better, right?" Lily smiled sheepishly, her cheeks almost the same colour as her hair. "It's not going to be much. Just walking around Hogsmeade, really, and this way I know we won't have to go to that awful ball."

"Oh." Cady bit her tongue against the urge to probe for more information – if she was going to be a good, supportive friend, she had to give Lily her space. It was what she'd want. Only, there was still one question she had to know the answer to. "I don't have to come, do I?"

Lily only shrugged and offered an apologetic kind of smile. "We'll talk about it later, okay?"

"I don't like the sound of that." Cady scowled but nodded all the same.

* * *

"We made an agreement," Lily confessed later that night. She and Cady were sat on their respective beds, each studying the chapter they were to read for Charms the next day. "It's nothing awful."

"Then why are you stalling?" Cady asked, shaking aside the hair which had stuck to her quill.

"I'm not. Just making an introduction," said Lily. "On the way to see Dumbledore, we were talking. I'm allowed to bring you along at first as long as you don't come alone."

"So I could just ask a friend to come?"

"Not like that." Lily slumped her shoulders. "It's still supposed to be a date, remember? I was wondering if you wouldn't mind, you know, bringing your own. You don't have to stay the whole time, just a little while, and if you do I promise to help you in Potions forever. Please, Cady?"

Cady glared at her book, running through the million and one reasons she didn't want to do it. A double date would be awkward; it wasn't like she had a boyfriend she could pop out of her trunk at any given time. She couldn't ask a friend to pretend for her because she didn't have all that many she could see willing to chaperone Lily and James – hell, she didn't have _any _like that. There was always asking Richard, but that ran the risk of something genuinely happening between the two of them. Cady liked him and all, but she didn't want that. It would be like dating her cat.

"Hey, would Roman count?" Cady reached out to where he slept stretched out at the foot of her bed, running her fingers over soft fur. "He's a guy."

"He's a cat," Lily said. "I don't think it works like that."

"If he was an animagus it might."

"Is he?"

"No."

Lily laughed and said, "How about that boy in Potions? He's nice. You like him."

"I don't think so." Cady set her Charms book down on her bedside table, taking the opportunity flop back onto the pillows she'd taken from Annabel's abandoned bed. "You could ask Kit to go with you, she seems like she could summon a date. Or one of the seventh year girls. Or Remus – he'd do it."

"After Annabel?" Lily made a face. "I'm only asking you because you're my friend. If you want, I could find someone."

Cady pushed herself up on her elbows, peering over at Lily. She was smiling into the pages of her textbook, red hair hanging loose over the bears which decorated the shoulders of her pyjamas. "I've never really played matchmaker before, it could be fun."

"Why do I think this is what you wanted all along?" Cady asked, resignation colouring her already tired voice.

"Because you should've been Ravenclaw," said Lily. "Does that mean you'll let me?"

"As long as you know I'm a flight risk."

"I can handle that," Lily assured. She rose from her bed to put her things away, neat and tidy, before climbing between the sheets and waving her wand to close the drapes. "Goodnight, Cady."

"'Night, Lily." Cady settled back, staring blankly upward. A proud smile tugged on the corners of her lips. "And Lil?"

"Mmhmm?"

"I don't need that tutoring. I made Amortentia today."


End file.
